Which diseases do we study?

  

Biologists and doctors within CDBG are using zebrafish to identify genes that underlie a broad range of human diseases, including cardiovascular, inflammatory and musculoskeletal disease, deafness and cancer.

 In cardiovascular research the zebrafish is being used to model blood clotting, blood vessel development, heart failure, and congenital heart disease.
 In programmes of research into acute inflammation, a major underpinning process in many diseases, researchers have established a zebrafish model of inflammation, and its resolution. An approach that allows detailed study of the genetic controls of inflammation and the possibility of identifying potential new drugs.
 Another focus of our work is to understand how a gene called Hedgehog (a biological signal that underlies a number of human cancers) controls cell growth. This is fast becoming an avenue of research that is leading to new cancer therapies. 

In programmes of work that probe disorders of the nervous system, including neurodegenerative diseases, movement disorders, psychiatric disorders and play casino deafness, researchers are using the zebrafish pokies online to understand how the genetic defects underlying these conditions cause functional abnormalities in the human brain, spinal cord and sensory organs.

Researchers are delving into the complexities of muscle degeneration in genetic models of human musculoskeletal diseases, such as muscular dystrophy.
 

These studies exemplify how zebrafish research offers unique opportunities to understanding some of the greatest challenges in medical science, by enabling new discoveries of how cells and tissues work to be translated into new ways of understanding a broad range of human diseases.

Finally, and as demonstrated through ongoing research programmes, the zebrafish models affords an ideal opportunity, not only to identify novel candidates for genes underlying human disease, but offers a potential system in which to begin to develop novel therapeutic agents in drug discovery programmes, hence helping to identify new treatments.

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