Study of Zebrafish Helps Explain How Spinal Cord Injuries Are Healed

A former physical therapist who worked in rehabilitation centers with spinal cord injury patients for many years before deciding to switch her focus to the underlying science, Yona Goldshmit, PhD, now is a scientist working with Peter Currie, PhD, at Monash University in Australia. Their focus: the mechanisms of spinal cord repair in zebrafish, which, unlike humans and other mammals, can regenerate their spinal cord after injury. Goldshmit says a protein may be the key difference between regeneration in fish and mammals; she presented this research during the recent International Zebrafish Development and Genetics Conference in Madison, Wis. For more information, click here to read the full release.