2025 Scientific Innovations Award
Ken Prehoda, Ph.D.
University of Oregon
Regenerative medicine may one day enable us to repair brain damage caused by injury and disease. While humans and other mammals cannot regenerate the central nervous system, fish have an innate ability to regenerate in both simple tissues such as the fins, but also more complex ones including the heart and brain. Understanding the mechanisms of brain regeneration in fish could inform treatments for traumatic brain injuries such as stroke and neurodegenerative diseases in humans. One of the best ways to gain insight into complex biological processes like brain regeneration is to watch them at microscopic detail. Advances in microscopy allow us to view cellular dynamics at very high resolution, both in time and space. However, these tools rely on light reaching the tissue of interest.
Zebrafish are an established model for brain regeneration but the pigments in their skin and skull are opaque, making it difficult to view the regeneration process in living fish using advanced microscopy techniques. The fish, Danionella, lack pigments and have an open skull roof, making them more tractable for microscopy studies. Our lab has developed techniques for watching the brain develop using advanced microscopy, which have led to amazing new insights into how the brain grows. We would like to apply these techniques to Danionella with the hope that they will yield similar insights into how the brain can regenerate.
