Next-Generation Transgenesis in Zebrafish.

斑马鱼（Danio rerio）是一种小型热带鱼，已迅速成为生物医学研究的优秀模型。斑马鱼的饲养成本不高，而且很容易繁殖。幼鱼很小，而且相对透明，这使研究人员能够对活体动物进行显微镜观察。这个研究项目旨在开发一项令人兴奋的新技术，使我们能够观察完整动物体内的单个细胞。为了做到这一点，我们将荧光标记单个细胞，这将使我们能够使用高分辨率显微镜跟踪它们。这项新技术还将使我们能够针对这些标记细胞中的特定分子来破坏它们的活动。我们将瞄准的分子在再生、干细胞和癌症中发挥重要作用。在我们破坏一个分子的功能后，我们将能够观察细胞，看看它的运动、分裂或分化潜力是否受到影响。例如，我们可以测试细胞中一个分子的破坏是否会导致细胞迅速分裂并形成肿瘤。这种方法甚至可以让我们跟踪单个细胞在几个月或几年的时间内发生的变化。这些令人兴奋的新工具将使世界各地的许多研究人员能够回答尚未解决的问题，并将为生物医学研究开辟许多新的领域。

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a small tropical fish that has rapidly become an excellent model for biomedical studies. Zebrafish are inexpensive to maintain and breed readily. The young fish are small and relatively transparent which enables researchers to make microscopic observations in the living animal. This research project aims to develop an exciting new technology that will allow us to watch individual cells in the intact animal. To do this we will fluorescently label individual cells which will allow us to follow them using high-resolution microscopy. This new technology will also allow us to target specific molecules within these labelled cells to disrupt their activity. The molecules that we will target play important roles in regeneration, stem cells and cancer. After we disrupt the function of a molecule, we will be able to watch the cell to see whether its movement, division or differentiation potential are affected. For example we can test whether disruption of one molecule in a cell causes it to divide rapidly and form a tumour. This method will even allow us to follow what happens to an individual cell over a period of months or years. These exciting new tools will enable many researchers around the world to answer unresolved questions and will open up many new areas for biomedical research.