Image of the Day: See Through

A zebrafish model of the birth defect craniosynostosis provides insights into how the condition develops.

Written byCatherine Offord

| 1 min read

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ABOVE: A live zebrafish skull viewed from above, showing bone that was grown early (magenta) and later (yellow) in development
CAMILLA TENG/GAGE CRUMP LAB/USC STEM CELL

When a baby is born, its skull is made up of multiple cranial bones that shift to allow brain growth. But in babies with craniosynostosis, a serious birth defect that occurs at a rate of around 1 in 2,000 births, these bones fuse prematurely, preventing normal brain development and leading to mental retardation and potentially death.

Researchers led by stem cell biologist Gage Crump at the University of Southern California have created a model of craniosynostosis in zebrafish, which, thanks to their transparent tissues, can be imaged to understand the development of the condition. The team has now used this model to link premature fusing of cranial bones to early developmental abnormalities in the skull’s stem cell population.

“In the future, we hope to use ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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