Abstract

In the last few decades, the use of zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism for scientific research has gained a lot of importance. Apart from studying developmental processes, it is now being widely recognised as a great tool for modeling human diseases. The overwhelming homologies between the human and zebrafish genomes allow direct studies of origins of neurodegeneration and disruptions in metabolism, without ethical concerns.

In this Masterclass, we will present an overview of how zebrafish can be used to study a variety of diseases. First, we will describe the study of neurodegenerative disorders, characterised by the accumulation of Tau protein in the brain. Our aim is to characterise the effect of a newly discovered mutation in the Tau protein and to evaluate how this mutation affects protein degradation systems in neurons “in vivo”. In the second part, we will shed light on how the zebrafish retina can be utilised as a model for stem cell development. We investigate how environmental factors such as nutrition and oxygen availability affect stem cell properties and how disruption of stem cell metabolism can lead to malformations and cancer development.