From the mythical Ganges River to the less sacred, but considerably cleaner waters in KI's aquariums in Solna. The little zebrafish has made an unconscious career – as an increasingly important model organism in medical research.
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) doesn't look like much, but it has qualities that make it very useful in drug development.
“In fact, they are very similar to us in terms of genetics. Over 80 percent of the genes that we know cause disease in humans are also found in zebrafish. The fish are also extremely easy to genetically modify,” says Lars Bräutigam, head of the zebrafish facility at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Solna.
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