page_title: Zebrafish
section_title: Drug discovery and development
hierarchical_section_title: Zebrafish / Drug discovery and development
caption_attribution_description: Zebrafish, like humans, have a backbone and many genes in common with humans. In one laboratory test, the addition of the chemical ketamine—a pediatric anesthetic—lowers the fish’s heart rate and reduces the number of neurons (nerve cells), shown in the slide as short, vertical lines coming down from the horizontal spinal cord. Read this Consumer Update to find out how these tiny, transparent fish may make a difference to your health someday: Zebrafish Make a Splash in FDA Research.
context_page_description: The zebrafish is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio.
  The zebrafish is an important and widely used vertebrate model organism in scientific research, for example in drug development, in particular pre-clinical development. It is also notable for its regenerative abilities, and has been modified by researchers to produce many transgenic strains.
context_section_description: The zebrafish and zebrafish larva is a suitable model organism for drug discovery and development. As a vertebrate with 70% genetic homology with humans, it can be predictive of human health and disease, while its small size and fast development facilitates experiments on a larger and quicker scale than with more traditional in vivo studies, including the development of higher-throughput, automated investigative tools. As demonstrated through ongoing research programmes, the zebrafish model enables researchers not only to identify genes that might underlie human disease, but also to develop novel therapeutic agents in drug discovery programmes. Zebrafish embryos have proven to be a rapid, cost-efficient, and reliable teratology assay model.
caption: FDA research used Zebrafish to show the effects of ketamine on neurological development
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