NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE - CANCER.GOV

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Ben Feldman
Director

Location

6 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814

Overview

The core's goal is to help researchers of any expertise perform zebrafish experiments aimed at illuminating basic biology and human disease mechanisms, thereby advancing the NIH and NICHD 's research missions.  A typical research question might investigate the function or regulation of a zebrafish gene and/or its ortholog from humans or another species. We are also happy to offer consultation for any other zebrafish-related projects you may be considering. The core is equipped to assist with the following methodologies:

  • Gene expression and regulation studies
    • In situ hybridization to characterize developmental expression patterns of zebrafish genes
    • Zebrafish nucleic acid collection for downstream genomic and molecular applications
  • Gain of gene function studies
    • In vitro RNA synthesis
    • RNA and DNA microinjection
    • Transgenic animal production*
  • Loss of gene function studies
    • Design and microinjection of antisense morpholino oligonucleotides for transient loss of function
    • Design, synthesis and microinjection of TALE nucleases or CRISPR-Cas9 reagents to generate germ-line genetic mutants*
  • Other methodologies
    • Cryopreservation of transgenic and mutant zebrafish lines
    • Importation of existing zebrafish lines
    • Characterization of phenotypes by time-lapse photography

User Guidelines

The NICHD Zebrafish Core is open to all NIH intramural researchers. Shorter projects requiring only a single procedure might be performed exclusively by the core’s staff. However, the core favors a team-based approach for more involved projects. The core will provide training, access to equipment and standard reagents as well as quality-control feedback to scientists from the recipient laboratories, who will independently perform key parts of the needed experiments.

The NICHD Zebrafish Core has a small budget for minimal basic operations. For this reason, charges must be made to laboratories using the core. These charges are in proportion to the resources and amount of time needed to access animals and equipment. Please contact Benjamin Feldman for a schedule of fees.

Official authorization and training is required for users wishing to handle zebrafish over three days old.

Keywords

CRISPRCRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesisCas9DNA microinjectionRNA microinjectionTALE nucleasesTALENantisense morpholino oligonucleotidescryopreservationAnimal Resourcesgene expressionin situ hybridizationin vitro RNA synthesismutantsnichd-corenih-corephenotypingtransgenictransgenic animal productionwhole-mount in situ stainingzebrafishzebrafish RNA stainzebrafish behaviorzebrafish developmentzebrafish geneticszebrafish lineszebrafish phenotyping