About this Research Topic
The zebrafish has become an attractive vertebrate model organism for biomedical discovery in the past few decades. The general strengths of zebrafish are well known: cost-effectiveness, high-fecundity, short generation time, external development, transparency of embryonic stages and ease of genome manipulation. These features have provided investigators with a vertebrate model with unprecedented potential for live-imaging of biological processes and for genetic and drug screenings.
The zebrafish has been used in developmental biology and embryogenesis, and in the recent two decades, it is increasingly utilized to investigate human diseases owing to the high degree of genetic, anatomical and physiological similarity to humans. Over 80% of disease-causing human proteins have an ortholog in zebrafish and the publishing of the zebrafish reference genome in 2013 accelerated the disease modelling in this organism. In turn, our understanding of disease mechanisms and the development of new medical treatments have expanded. Of note, new therapeutic targets and molecules were identified or discovered using zebrafish that are now being considered for human trials or are awaiting for clinical application. Nevertheless, more zebrafish models are needed to broaden our understanding of human diseases.
This Research Topic aims to gather studies that take advantage of the zebrafish model to explore human clinical problems. We encourage submissions of all article types falling under:
• The development of novel zebrafish disease models;
• The exploitation of established zebrafish models to gain novel understanding of disease mechanisms or illuminate new treatment strategies;
• Advances in technology with a direct impact on human disease modelling in zebrafish.
The zebrafish has been used in developmental biology and embryogenesis, and in the recent two decades, it is increasingly utilized to investigate human diseases owing to the high degree of genetic, anatomical and physiological similarity to humans. Over 80% of disease-causing human proteins have an ortholog in zebrafish and the publishing of the zebrafish reference genome in 2013 accelerated the disease modelling in this organism. In turn, our understanding of disease mechanisms and the development of new medical treatments have expanded. Of note, new therapeutic targets and molecules were identified or discovered using zebrafish that are now being considered for human trials or are awaiting for clinical application. Nevertheless, more zebrafish models are needed to broaden our understanding of human diseases.
This Research Topic aims to gather studies that take advantage of the zebrafish model to explore human clinical problems. We encourage submissions of all article types falling under:
• The development of novel zebrafish disease models;
• The exploitation of established zebrafish models to gain novel understanding of disease mechanisms or illuminate new treatment strategies;
• Advances in technology with a direct impact on human disease modelling in zebrafish.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
