The Zebrafish Facility supports the integrative systems biology research focus of the biotechnology initiative at Rensselaer.

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a small fresh water fish commonly found in aquaria but originating in South Asia. Because zebrafish are:

• small
• robust
• undergo rapid development [video of early zebrafish development, 1]
• transparent
• reach functional maturity in 5 days
• have a brain functionally and evolutionarily related to mammalian brains
• have complex behaviors

they are ideally suited for the genetic study of both vertebrate development [2] and neuroscience [3].

The facility consists of a 385 sq ft. room containing two independent holding systems. The fish facility was designed and built by Marine Biotech using the XR2 rack design as a base. Each system has a holding capacity of 10,350 adult zebrafish in 2-liter, 4-liter, 6-liter and 3/4-liter holding tanks. Currently, more than 500 individual tanks can be maintained in the system, but the systems can be increased to 770 tanks, as needed. This facility was designed to support genetic or pharmacological screens.

The facility is furnished with a Millipore RIOS reverse osmosis water purification system capable of producing 150-liters per hour of high purity water. The systems control pH, water replenishment, lighting and temperature. All system water is passed through staged filtration systems including a biofilter and UV sterilized before returning to the holding tanks.

References:

[1] RO Karlstrom and DA Kane. A flipbook of zebrafish embryogenesis. Development (1996) 123:461

[2] Kimmel CB, Ballard WW, Kimmel SR, Ullmann B, Schilling TF. Stages of embryonic development of the zebrafish. Dev Dyn. 1995 Jul;203(3):253-310.

[3] Page-McCaw PS, Chung SC, Muto A, Roeser T, Staub W, Finger-Baier KC, Korenbrot JI, Baier H. Retinal network adaptation to bright light requires tyrosinase. Nat Neurosci. 2004 Dec;7(12):1329-1336.