Question: how do you find out what makes the zebra fish re grow and how can you use it on humans

Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez answered on 9 Mar 2014:

Well, I do that by looking at their DNA and more specifically at how they express it.

See, DNA is the blueprint of life and all living organisms (animals, plants, bacteria, viruses…even your cousin Phil!) have it. It contains the instructions to make us the way we are and we have the exact same copy of it in almost every cell in our bodies. What makes each cell different (for example, a skin cell from a neuron from inside the brain) is the way the instructions in the DNA (also known as genes) are read. Different cells read the DNA differently and so express different genes.

And why am I boring you with this? Well, it is because in order to find out how a zebrafish regrows its tissues, I need to find out what genes are being expressed during its regeneration. In order to do this I either look for a specific gene and see whether it is being expressed or I simply look at all the genes that are being expressed and then calculate which ones are the most important ones for the regrowth of the tissue (not an easy task, as like humans, zebrafish have over 20,000 genes). Using special techniques, I can also delete or overexpress a certain gene and see how it affects the regeneration of the fish.

Unfortunately, nothing of what I have done has been used for humans (it is still very early stages), but a lot of research is going into understanding how zebrafish regenerate their hearts, and whether the same regeneration could be achieved in humans (as it could be used to cure people’s heart after a heart attack). We share 70% of our genes with zebrafish, so, on paper, it could be possible.