Patent ID: 8431768

Claim:
A method for identifying a compound that alters cellular regeneration in a transgenic fish comprising: subjecting a transgenic fish to a targeted cellular ablation or a regional cellular ablation, wherein the genome of the transgenic fish comprises a transgene comprising a gene encoding i) an ablation promoting moiety or ii) a coupled expression system comprising an ablation promoting moiety and a reporter protein, wherein the ablation promoting moiety comprises at least one component of a pro-drug conversion system; and wherein the gene is operably-linked to a regulatory DNA sequence comprising at least a promoter element that regulates the expression of the gene such that the gene is expressed in a reproducible spatial and temporal pattern in the transgenic fish; contacting the transgenic fish with at least one compound; comparing the degree of cellular regeneration in the presence of the compound to a control transgenic fish not contacted with the compound whereby differences in regenerative capacity in the contacted transgenic fish compared to the control transgenic fish indicates that the compound affects cellular regeneration in a transgenic fish; and detecting a presence of regenerating cells or an absence of regenerating cells.