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Click here to search FindAPhD.com for PhD studentship opportunitiesAbout the Project
If you decide to join us on this project, you will study blood cell development during zebrafish embryogenesis. Zebrafish is a great in vivo vertebrate model that allows you to study the molecular processes that govern the formation of the embryo and the generation and maintenance of the adult organism. Using mutant fish lines, you will examine your favourite blood cell type in the presence or absence of your gene of interest. Transgenic reporter genes that encode fluorescent proteins will light up your favourite blood cells and allow you to trace their formation and behaviour in transparent zebrafish embryos. Following cellular dissociation, the fluorescent protein also allows you to isolate your cell type for in vitro studies. In these studies, you may interrogate the structure of your cells under the electron microscope or investigate the cells’ gene expression profile in RNA-sequencing experiments.
You can expect a large zebrafish aquarium to hold your mutant and transgenic zebrafish, a set of light, fluorescent and confocal microscopes to help you study your embryos, flow cytometric sorters that allow you to sort your cells, and numerous facilities that help you to perform the in vitro studies that you want to do. Among the latter, I would like to highlight the electron microscopy suit and the deep sequencing unit with its experts in bioinformatics.
References
Moore, C., Richens, J.L., Hough, Y., Ucanok, D., Malla, S., Sang, F., Chen, Y., Elworthy, S., Wilkinson, R.N., and Gering, M. (2018). Gfi1aa and Gfi1b set the pace for primitive erythroblast differentiation from hemangioblasts in the zebrafish embryo. Blood Adv. 2, 2589–2606.
Jessop, P., Ruzov, A., and Gering, M. (2018). Developmental Functions of the Dynamic DNA Methylome and Hydroxymethylome in the Mouse and Zebrafish: Similarities and Differences. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 6, 27, 1–15.
Thambyrajah, R., Ucanok, D., Jalali, M., Hough, Y., Wilkinson, R.N., McMahon, K., Moore, C., and Gering, M. (2016). A gene trap transposon eliminates haematopoietic expression of zebrafish Gfi1aa, but does not interfere with haematopoiesis. Dev. Biol. 417, 25–39.
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