About the Tool
Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a freshwater fish from the minnow family native to the
rivers of India and South Asia. The assessment of drug-induced organ toxicity and
teratogenicity in zebrafish embryos has become a powerful tool for predicting the
safety profile of unknown chemicals in other animals, including humans. Large
progenies and fast development of embryos allow testing compounds in vivo with
high reproducibility in a shorter time than using traditional preclinical models,
while allowing robust biological translatability.
The fact that embryos are
transparent also makes possible the easy visualization of organ-specific and
teratogenic phenotypes under the microscope, allowing a phenotypic depth
difficult to achieve in vitro and through larger animals.
