MEC ImpactReport 2024 flipBook v1.0 single pages - Flipbook - Page 11
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Fishing for answers
Zebrafish are transformative animal models for vision research. They grow very fast,
producing a living eye that’s very similar to a human one within just five days. They
can model many of the genetic eye diseases we see in humans, allowing researchers to
investigate how these diseases develop and can be treated. And they are transparent, giving
unique access to see what’s going on inside the eye as it grows and as diseases evolve.
Thanks to these features, zebrafish have rapidly furthered our understanding of how the
eye develops or becomes damaged in genetic eye diseases. As a result, working closely with
these animals has become essential for research groups at Moorfields and the UCL Institute of
Ophthalmology if they’re to keep driving forward our understanding of the eye.
Modernising old facilities
In 2019, the charity awarded
a grant to install fish housing
facilities at the institute,
creating the capacity to house
almost 2,000 zebrafish across
140 individual tanks. As a
shared, multi-user facility,
this gives researchers at the
institute unparalleled access
to these important models to
support their work.
Now, five years on, these
new facilities are enabling
further our understanding of
contribute to the development
exciting new research. Dr
how structural cells in the eye
of eye disease.
Ryan MacDonald’s team, who
(called glial cells) contribute
But Dr MacDonald’s lab isn’t the
run and are a major user of
to the health and function of
only one making strides using
these facilities, have been
our retina, and how changes in
the new facility to drive forward
making great progress to
the shape of these cells might
our understanding of the eye.
Dr Ryan MacDonald’s team
£2,395,050
funding awarded across
equipment, technology
and innovation over last
six years
