The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is one of the most popular vertebrate systems for studying developmental genetics, primarily due to a number of advantageous features, including high fecundity, generation of many transparent embryos that develop outside the mother (in the water), and the conservation of the vertebrate organs, which allows comparison with that of humans. Thanks to the development of methods for transgenesis and genome-editing (especially CRISPr/Cas9 technology) zebrafish has recently "exploded" as powerful experimental model for in vivo studies of human diseases, including tumors.
The Zebrafish Unit is entirely dedicated to the maintenance and use for scientific purposes of zebrafish strains (and/or other small freshwater fish) and provides a direct access to the zebrafish. It includes:
Facility staff manages all aquarium maintenance and water quality monitoring, feeding, and breeding of animals to be raised in the facility. Thanks to our facility, investigators and scientific groups have the possibility to analyze and study in vivo, in a vertebrate model system, the function and the role of the homologues of human genes involved in human diseases and developmental biology. Moreover, zebrafish embryos represent a powerful platform for genetic and drug screening.
The Zebrafish Unit offers a wide range of services and helps researchers through the entire course of their projects. Training is available for a wide variety of techniques, providing a lot of well-established protocols, as well as assistance with assay development and experimental design. In particular, we offer:
Facility Manager
Born in Trento, Gianluca Deflorian studied at University of Padova, where he graduated in 2000 in Molecular Biology, contributing to the development of new methods to detect in vivo the expression of genes in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster, and few years later he holds a PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology of Development.
It was during his PhD project that he started to work on the zebrafish as model organism and very soon he became enamored of this model, attracted by the huge potential that this vertebrate organism offered, and still offers, for researchers engaged especially in the study of developmental biology and human genetic diseases.
He works at IFOM since 2006 and, since 2009, he is responsible for the Zebrafish Unit. He participated to numerous international conferences and, thanks to his work, his publications and many scientific collaborations undertaken, it is one of the leading experts in Italy of this model organism.
Designated Veterinarian
Manuela graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1993 and specialized in Laboratory Animal Science and Medicine in 2002 at the University of Milan. Since 1998 she has been working as veterinary consultant for a large research center in Milan. Currently she is the designated veterinarian (D.Lgs 26/14) of IFOM and Cogentech. Her interests are mainly focused on aspects relating to the health and welfare of laboratory animals, in particular she offers technical-scientific support to rodents, fish and frog facilities and contributes to staff training and courses on laboratory animal science.