Mary Iovine
Lehigh University, PA·Biology
Zebrafish can regrow a lost fin, complete with bone. This makes the regrowing fin a useful model for understanding regeneration, skeleton development and skeletal disease.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
- Topics
zebrafish
Danio rerio
fin regeneration
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Test whether male and female zebrafish differ in fin regeneration by measuring regenerate length, fin ray length, segment length and cell proliferation at several regeneration stages.
- Identify genes expressed differently between male and female zebrafish during fin regeneration through transcriptomic profiling at different stages of regrowth.
- Produce a resource that distinguishes sex-dependent from sex-independent regeneration outcomes to guide when fin regeneration studies should analyze data by sex.
More about the research
Most studies use both male and female fish but analyze them together. Obvious differences between the sexes in fin regrowth have not been seen. Yet some sex differences are subtle and only show up when measured carefully. Since 2016, NIH has asked researchers to consider sex as a biological variable (SABV), because pooling or using one sex can hide important biology.
Why it matters
Zebrafish fin regeneration is used to study how bone and tissue regrow and to model skeletal disease. A clear catalog of which regeneration traits and genes differ between males and females could help researchers design better experiments. It could also prevent missed findings, making results from this model more reliable as they inform work on skeletal development and disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Andrew Mongue
University of Florida, FL·Ecology & Evolution
Construct a global phylogeny of bagworm moths from field-collected species to count how many times extreme female sexual dimorphism, including winglessness and loss of legs and eyes, evolved independently.
John Archie Pollock
Duquesne University, PA·Neuroscience
Define which RNA splice isoforms of ATF3, an injury-responsive transcription factor, underlie sex differences in pain and pain relief in rat dorsal root ganglia after sciatic nerve constriction.
Ronald Kwon
University of Washington, WA·Genetics
Identify genes near 56 bone mineral density-linked genomic regions that cause adult skeletal defects when disrupted, using a reverse genetic screen and a new phenotyping strategy in zebrafish.
The school
Lehigh University: 13 labs on PI Pages, $62M a year on research, 99 research doctorates a year.
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