Muscle & Cardiac Disease

Cardiac & Skeletal Muscle Research Interest Group Overview

Zebrafish models are growing in use in the cardiac and skeletal muscle disease community. This is driven by the realisation that a number of zebrafish mutations in common muscle disease causing genes have accurately recapitulated many aspects of human pathology. The uptake of the model has also been fuelled by the growing need for rapid and reliable testing of the causality human gene variants discovered in the large scale exome sequencing of muscle disease patients occurring across the globe. Zebrafish are well placed to fill this need.

Aims

The ZDMS Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Research Interest Group will address the current state of muscle disease modelling in fish, examine bottle necks and constraints we face and how they can be best overcome.

  • organizing conferences for scientists to exchange knowledge

  • coordinate forums to encourage exchange between patients and researchers

  • promote collaborative initiatives

  • foster young scientists

Muscle & Cardiac RIG contacts:

Clarissa Henry: clarissa.henry@umit.maine.edu
Kazu Kikuchi: kikuchi@ncvc.go.jp
Jared Talbot (Junior Co-Leader): Jared.Talbot@maine.edu