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The zebrafish may seem like an unlikely test subject to answer questions about human genetics, but that’s exactly what scientists have been doing for years. This little striped fish has helped us begin to solve one of the biggest mysteries in biology -- which genes are responsible for differences in human skin pigmentation, as well as to address other biomedically relevant topics like identifying genes that are required for cardiac development and kidney function. Now, scientists are hoping the fish can help them better understand human eye development and eye diseases. Dr. Jeffrey Gross joined UT in September of last year, directly after finishing his post-doc with John Dowling at Harvard University. He is an assistant professor of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology and a Member of the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and the Institute for Neuroscience at UT. His lab studies eye development in these tiny fish. “We do genetic screens to find mutations that affect eye development and that result in morphological abnormalities in eye formation or defects in visual system function,” he said. Zebrafish are the ideal candidate for comparisons to human development as they are close enough to humans on the evolutionary tree as well as reproduce quickly, with a generation time of three months, making it easy to generate large families and identify those that harbor recessive mutations. They are also small, cheap and it’s easy to house thousands of them. Gross hopes to use zebrafish mutants to better understand human eye diseases as there are still a number of pathologies for which the affected genes have yet to be identified, such as congenital cataracts, age-related macular degeneration and ocular colobomas. After just one year, his lab consists of three graduate students, three undergraduate students and a research technician, and it is still growing. “I want them to have their own ideas and to be excited about what they’re doing. That’s exciting for me because they will direct where the lab goes in the next few years. I’m here almost like a cheerleader! I’m here to ask questions and provide support but they’re going to be the driving force behind our work,” he said. Research in the lab is supported by grants from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation and the American Health Assistance Foundation Macular Degeneration Research Program. One requirement Gross has in his lab is that each graduate student must mentor an undergraduate. He feels this will benefit not only the younger students but also strengthen the graduate students’ understanding of the material, and their ability to effectively convey their ideas to others. The lab has two meetings a week – one is a journal club meeting where the group discusses recent articles that relate to their research and the other is a lab meeting. “A lot of money has been pumped into the university and the facilities and resources at UT are outstanding,” Gross said. In the future, Gross’ lab may begin to explore the zebrafish’s olfactory system. It appears the organism has an endless use for human genetics research. Unfortunately, when some of the fish get old, “you do have to get a little callous at times and kill them, put them out of their misery,” he said. Gross intends to name the mutants after famous musicians |
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