Submitted by: Sriivatsan Govinda Rajan
Program: Biological Sciences
Division: Life Sciences
Danio Rerio or Zebrafish is increasingly becoming an attractive model system in Labs and Research centers around the world for studying diseases ranging from Alzheimer's, Diabetes to various forms of cancer. 70 percent of the protein-coding genes in the human genome share similarity with the genes found in the zebrafish genome. In addition, 84 percent of the known disease-causing genes in humans have a Zebrafish counterpart. This high genomic similarity to humans coupled with the ease of genetic manipulation and optical transparency makes it a fantastic tool to understand the various signaling pathways responsible for a variety of disease phenotypes.