Something Fishy: The Secret Lives of Zebrafish


This image, captured by Annie Cavanagh and David McCarthy, shows a false color electron micrograph view of a zebrafish embryo.


Annie Cavanagh, David McCarthy
School of Pharmacy
University College London

Humans and fish have more in common than you might expect. Since the 1970s, a tropical freshwater minnow known as the zebrafish has been used to study the genetic and physiological development of living organisms. By mapping the zebrafish genome and studying irregularities in their development, researchers have been able to create robust models of how vertebrates develop, and identify genetic conditions that lead to diseases such as cancer. This image shows a false-color scanning electron micrograph of a zebrafish embryo.

