Study of Zebrafish may lead to research on human diseases

University of Cincinnati researchers hope their study of the tiny black-and-white striped zebrafish, whose systems closely track those of humans, will lead to enhanced research on human diseases.

A $1.53 million four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health is targeted at creating a camera that will allow more detailed study of zebrafish cells.

Jay Hove, an associate professor of molecular and cellular physiology, is working to develop the camera that would improve the study of cell and fluid movement in real time. He also hopes to develop a course for fall 2008.

``That's my mission here, to create an internationally recognized research program,'' said Hove, 43, formerly of the California Institute of Technology. ``I saw myself fitting in with what they were doing here.''

The tropical fish that belongs to the minnow family makes a good research subject because it breeds quickly.

``I can literally say, 'I need 10,000 babies next Wednesday,''' said Hove, who was hired in 2004 to establish the program.

Other scientists have studied zebrafish. Last year, Dutch researchers said they believe they have identified the gene that determines brain size in zebrafish, a finding that could eventually help in developing therapies for humans suffering from nervous system illnesses like Parkinson's Disease.

While genetically distant from humans, the zebrafish has comparable organs and tissues, such as heart, kidney, pancreas, bones, and cartilage.

``The zebrafish is therefore a powerful model organism for understanding normal development and birth defects, and providing clues to cure human diseases,'' Dr. Franziska Grieder, an official with the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health, said Monday.

The zebrafish research laboratory at the university's Genome Research Institute will move early next year to the school's East Campus. It includes three full-time research staff members and dozens of small tanks that each hold hundreds of fish with different kinds of genetic markers.

Competition to recruit more researchers to university campuses has grown and is particularly intense in the medical fields because of the millions of dollars in research money at stake.

The university opened the Genome Research Institute in 2003, and 40 researchers now work on projects ranging from validation of compounds for outside companies to protein expression and purification.

One of the institute's new projects is to form a consortium to maintain and operate a library of chemical compounds transferred to the institute from Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. The University of Cincinnati, the University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee at Memphis and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center already have agreed to the join the group.

The University of Cincinnati also is planning to enlarge and improve animal testing facilities.