Dr. Frederico Fenaroli, Seksjon for fysiologi og cellebiologi, UiO

The zebrafish is emerging as a powerful animal model for the study of infectious disease and cancer. The embryos in particular, during their early stages of development, are optically transparent which make possible real time high resolution observation in a standard fluorescence microscope of bacteria and tumor cells provided that they carry a fluorescent marker. Moreover, genetic manipulation allows the labelling of specific cells of interest such as endothelial cells and macrophages, in the context of various diseases. Our group, for the first time, has introduced the blood injection of nanoparticles (NPs) in zebrafish larvae and has shown its usefulness in understanding NP behavior in the context of tuberculosis and cancer. In addition, we have also established the use of optical tweezers for active manipulation of NPs, bacteria and blood cells in the zebrafish vasculature. We believe that high resolution imaging of NPs flowing in the vasculature combined with mathematical modeling of their behavior in normal and diseased conditions could provide a wealth of information. That could be potentially very important for the development of more effective nanocarriers.