Focus on

September 2006

EVGN Zebrafish platform boosts European research on cardiovascular disease

A new technological European Vascular Genomics Network (EVGN) Zebrafish platform is now fully operative at IFOM. The facility, to be shared by EVGN members and partner laboratories, is led by Marina Mione, leader of the Zebrafish group at IFOM.

Developed after an IFOM proposal, the platform will provide EVGN members with the possibility to test and validate in this unique in vivo system data previously obtained in vitro. Funding comes from EVGN and covers an initial period of 2 years (with 60.000€/yr). At present, there are 5 ongoing collaborative projects involving EVGN laboratories from Italy, Germany, Finland, U.K. and France. EVGN is a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme; http://www.evgn.org).

"The rapid life cycle of Zebrafish together with eggs' transparency - confirms Marina Mione - are two of the most interesting features of this organism. They allow real time screening of any introduced modification and are especially useful when it comes to the analysis of the vascular development. We can monitor what happens whether blood vessels are defective, follow their anomalous growth and correlate any visible alteration to the mutation we introduced. ".

"Recent studies - observes Alain Tedgui, EVGN Scientific Coordinator from INSERM U689 in Paris - indicate that using Zebrafish we can investigate not only the molecular mechanisms of development, but also the cellular and molecular physiology and pathology in the adult. In the context of EVGN, cardiovascular pharmacology and angiogenesis are certainly the two areas in which we can expect fruitful findings."

Further information

» IFOM Press release - [.pdf, 42 Kb]
» EVGN, outreach to the general public - web site
» Mione research group (Genetic control of cell migration in zebrafish)