As a vertebrate, the zebrafish has the same major organs and tissues as humans. Their muscle, blood, kidney and eyes share many features with human systems.

Zebrafish have the unique ability to repair heart muscle. For example, if part of their heart is removed they can grow it back in a matter of weeks. Scientists are working to find out the specific factors involved in this process to see if this will help us to develop ways of repairing the heart in humans with heart failure or who have suffered heart attacks.

The zebrafish genome has been fully sequenced to a very high quality. This has enabled scientists to create mutations? in more than 14,000 genes to study their function.

Francis Hamilton, the Briton who first described zebrafish (Danio rerio) in 1822, would be astounded to see the scientific attention now afforded to this two-inch-long native of Indian rivers. A fish with no economic worth was how he described this little creature. Yet recently, the European Union awarded 12 million Euros to the ZF-MODELS research consortium to study zebrafish models for human development and disease. When and why did zebrafish swim from home aquaria into research labs, and what can we learn about our biology from this surprising source?

In this section we will look at key Scientists and their Labs. Their work is highly appreciated and we wish to many more scientists in coming years. Bright young minds who can unleash the true potential of Zebrafish with their hard work and science.