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The zebrafish animal model is a central part of many drug-discovery pipelines and widely used for translational and pre-clinical research.

The zebrafish core facility is the largest zebrafish facility in the Nordic countries and provides its complete service portfolio also to corporate users. Importantly, the team of the zebrafish core facility manages and carries out complete research projects including experimental planning, performing of procedures and data acquisition. 

We are used to working under non-disclosure agreements. 

Quality and reproducibility are the core values of the facility, therefore we have developed and implemented the “core-facility” concept which follows GLP. All procedures including husbandry and experimental pipelines are standardized and validated in-house, all husbandry is performed solely by core facility staff and researchers have only access to animals in a terminal barrier. 

Below, you will find an overview of our standardized experimental pipelines. Of course, we can always modify existing experimental pipelines or establish and validate new services.

Permits and access to zebrafish strains

The zebrafish core facility provides all permits necessary to perform experiments in zebrafish embryos younger than 5 days – hence during the timeframe they are used for translational and pre-clinical research as well as drug-discovery. You do not need a personal ethical license. 

The zebrafish core facility provides direct access to the most commonly used wildtype and transgenic strains, you do not need to import or purchase animals. Our colony animals are solely managed by staff following validated SOPs focused on animal welfare and reproducibility. The superior quality of our animals is additionally secured by a stringent biosafety concept and a highly qualified team including a designated veterinarian specialized in aquatic animals. 

Since we provide both permits and animals, we are usually able to start a research project within seven days after the first contact. 

Toxicity profiling

Zebrafish embryos are a widely used model for toxicity profiling of small molecules. We offer a wide range of different toxicity-profiling pipelines such as: 

Morphological toxicity profiling

Embryos are exposed to small molecules in 96-well plates and the toxicity on certain developmental processes and morphology is imaged using a zebrafish specific high-throughput imaging system. 

Behavior toxicity profiling

Embryos are exposed to small molecules in 48 or 96-well plates and the behavior is automatically recorded and analyzed using a Noldus system. Behaviors such as movement speed and time, reaction to light/dark or physical stimuli and short-term memory can be analyzed. Most often used for research connected to epilepsy, neurodegeneration and muscular dystrophies. 

Cardiac toxicity profiling

In contrast to rodents, the electrophysiology of the zebrafish heart closely resembles the one of humans which makes the zebrafish embryo the model of choice to study cardiac toxicity. Embryos are exposed to small molecules in 96-well plates and the heartbeat is filmed using a zebrafish specific high-throughput imaging system. QT-intervals are automatically measured using specific analysis software. 

Xenografts and cancer modelling

Zebrafish embryos are ideal cancer avatars and suitable for personalized medicine. Our team is highly experienced in transplanting cancer cell lines or primary material into zebrafish embryos. 

We have in-house validated and standardized protocols for transplanting into the perivitelline space (equal to a sub-cutaneous implantation in rodents) and to create orthotopic models for hematological cancers, brain malignancies or medulloblastomas. We can transplant hundreds of embryos in one session, our standard group size is 24 individuals per condition. 

Transplanted embryos can be positioned in 96-well plates and exposed to small molecules followed by automatic imaging at user-defined timepoints to analyze e.g. tumor regression or metastasis. 

Infections and high-containment research

We can infect embryonic zebrafish with various pathogens including BSL-2 classified viruses and bacteria by immersion or injection. We supply animals of various transgenic lines that allow for fluorescent-based imaging of various immune cells or specific ablation of macrophages. Infected embryos can be exposed to small molecules in 96-well plates and imaged with a zebrafish-specific high-throughput imaging system.

Other techniques

Besides the above-described pipelines, the zebrafish core facility provides numerous other experimental techniques such as:

• Injection of nanoparticles into the blood stream
• Creation of genetic knock-outs or other modifications using CrispR/Cas9 
• Injection of morpholinos for transient gene knock-down
• Exposure of embryos and adults to environmental samples based on updated versions of OECD236 and SS028193/ISO12890
• Large-scale production of embryos
• Cryopreservation and IVF

For more information, please contact zebrafish-office@km.ki.se.