Image: Courtesy of Schoppik Lab
As an integrated academic medical center, we don鈥檛 just treat conditions鈥攚e look for their origins, often in unexpected places. Take dizziness, one of the most common reasons people seek out medical help. , or the false sensation that you are spinning, can result from something as benign as standing up too abruptly or from something much more serious, such as a tumor or . The multitude of possibilities can make it challenging to arrive at a correct diagnosis.
To gain a better understanding of how the brain keeps us balanced and what goes wrong when it doesn鈥檛, , assistant professor of and , studies the brain structure of the diminutive tropical zebrafish, seen here beneath a fluorescent microscope. The zebrafish uses a neural architecture remarkably similar to ours to maintain balance鈥攋ust one reason it鈥檚 among the most studied organisms in science.
In one recent study, Dr. Schoppik and his team measured the ability of larval zebrafish to stabilize their gaze following body rotations, and identified the neurons responsible for this important reflex. 鈥淥ur goal,鈥 he says, 鈥渋s to leverage the simplicity and molecular control of the fish model to understand and ultimately treat disease.鈥
