See-Through Fish Help Cancer Research

Hugh Pickens writes "What is transparent, swims, and helps cure cancer? Caspar the friendly fish — a zebrafish bred with a see-through body to make studying disease processes easier for rapidly changing processes such as cancer, Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans in many ways and serve as good models for human biology and disease. In one experiment, researchers inserted a fluorescent melanoma tumor into the abdominal cavity of the transparent fish and by observing the fish under a microscope, they found that the cancer cells started spreading within five days and could actually see individual cells spreading. "The process by which a tumor goes from being localized to widespread and ultimately fatal is the most vexing problem that oncologists face," says Richard White, a clinical fellow in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston. "We don't know why cancer cells decide to move away from their primary site to other parts in the body." Researchers created the transparent fish, (photo) by mating two existing zebrafish breeds, one that lacked a reflective skin pigment and the other without black pigment. The offspring had only yellow skin pigment, essentially appearing clear."

That's not a transparent fish...

[Verteiron (224042)]

THIS [google.com] is a transparent fish. I have five of these, and they never cease to amaze me.

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[keeboo (724305)]

What's this? The "Corpse Fish"?

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[mikael (484)]

This is a "Blob-fish"

Blob fish [lumq.com]

No muscles, just gelantinous flesh so it can float just above the sea-bed without exerting any energy and eat anything that happens to float by.

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[ezzthetic (976321)]

That's not a transparent fish

It's a space station ...

Re:That's not a transparent fish...

[edwardpickman (965122)]

THIS is a transparent fish. I have five of these, and they never cease to amaze me.

They're pretty but having to wipe them down with Windex once a week is a pain. Oh, also they don't seem to live more than a week.

you call that a transparent fish? THIS ...

[rubycodez (864176)]

THIS is a transparent fish:

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[dargaud (518470)]

Also these species of transparent fishes [wikipedia.org] native of Antarctica. Harder to keep in a tank though.

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[afedaken (263115)]

WOO! At last, a chance to talk with FISH GEEKS. Are you afflicted with MTS, and if so, how far has it progressed?

(4) 10G
(1) 55G
(1) 30G
(1) 15G
(2) 2G
(1) 3G

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[VagaStorm (691999)]

Yes, but they can't patent fish they bought in the store. How on erth should they make $$$ of it :p

Sneaky marketing, not a breakthrough?

[Futurepower(R) (558542)]

Quote: "We don't know why cancer cells decide to move away from their primary site to other parts in the body."

Someone thinking carefully expresses thoughts carefully. A careful-thinking person would never say "decide to", because that communicates the idea that the cancer cells are thinking.

So, maybe you are right. Maybe it's just fraud masquerading as science, sneaky marketing, not a breakthrough. Maybe they are just trying to sell their own brand of transparent fish.

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[afedaken (263115)]

There's also the advantages of ease of breeding. Zebrafish are extremely prolific, laying hundreds of eggs at a time, and reaching sexual maturity in as little as 90 days. For experiments requiring chordates, they're unmatched.

DIY see-through zebrafish

[the_kanzure (1100087)]

1) Figure out the genes involved via a bioinformatics database [biodatabase.org].
2) Order the genes - look up oligonucleotide synthesis companies, or DIY with the open source machine.
3) Download the biokit [sourceforge.net] for do-it-yourself genetic engineering.
4) ??? (tanks, supplies, tissue culture, obtaining zebra fish and feed ...) 5) See-through zebra fish.

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[JonathanR (852748)]

Not enough question marks. You always need four question marks before you can Profit!

making us invisible

[tonyahn (859878)]

...now if they can only make us transparent also....

When..

[Smordnys s'regrepsA (1160895)]

When do they breed see-through people, for the human studies?

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[pev (2186)]

When do they breed see-through people, for the human studies?

Don't you mean for the TSA?

They are?

[ChromeAeonium (1026952)]

Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans in many ways

You mean, in the same way that every other vertebrate is, or is there something special about these particular fish?

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[sonchat (819093)]

Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans in many ways

You mean, in the same way that every other vertebrate is, or is there something special about these particular fish?

Hucklebee is offended.

Re:They are?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Zebrafish, the nematode C. Elegans, and fruitflies have each been model organisms for years for geneticists. It's just easier to hack the underlying biology when all the scientists are focusing on the same exact species.

Re:They are?

[eli pabst (948845)]

Not in particular. There are a lot of conserved pathways and genes but not more than any other fish. They're nice because they're a more convenient model organism to use than mice or chimps. You can fit a lot more of them in a tank, they're relatively inexpensive, they have a short generation time, and they're more of less transparent so you can observe internal structures (particularly for developmental bio purposes) and use luminescent/colorimetric techniques with out having to do any dissections. So they do make a good model, in fact one of the genes involved in determining skin color in humans was recently identified using Zebrafish.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5055391 [npr.org]

wrong database!

[by Anonymous Coward]

No, you find the gene at http://zfin.org/ [zfin.org]

Zebrafish International Resource Center

[PIPBoy3000 (619296)]

For other universities who happen to want to work with these fish, I recommend contacting Zoltán Varga [wikipedia.org]. He's a director at the Zebrafish International Resource Center [zebrafish.org] at the University of Oregon.

He also has a great family and we had dinner at his house a couple weeks ago, Zoltán making a tasty Thai soup. The best part about visiting is that his wife is French and they're always talking in various languages at the dinner table. For some reason when the dog is bad, they always chastise him in German.

Re:Zebrafish International Resource Center

[kongit (758125)]

Seeing that he works with fish and speaks many languages I must assume that babelfish are involved in some manner. Additionally the name Zoltán seems suspicious. I suggest you contact the nearest Extra-Terrestrial Human Interrelations office in your district.

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[TubeSteak (669689)]

For other universities who happen to want to work with these fish, I recommend contacting Zoltán Varga. He's a director at the Zebrafish International Resource Center at the University of Oregon.

Any reason we can't crossbreed the fish ourselves?

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[Cyno01 (573917)]

For some reason when the dog is bad, they always chastise him in German.

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse" (attributed to Charles V)

Re:Zebrafish International RESCUE Center?

[trongey (21550)]

Oops. Misread that the first time by, but I'm sure there's some group out there making plans to rescue all of these zebrafish from the evils of medical research. Then they'll rehabilitate them and release them into the wild where they'll be free and happy.

New 80's Marketing Opportunity

[wildsurf (535389)]

Crystal Sushi

The real breakthrough

[Joebert (946227)]

Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans in many ways and serve as good models for human biology and disease.

Fuck cancer, I wanna be transparent too !

Not just cancer

[cvd6262 (180823)]

Two great things about zebrafish:

1. You can see all sorts of diseases in them, not just cancer.

2. They're cheap. A small team at a small lab, like at a State College [brockport.edu] (see Project #4), can do good quality research with them. Even better, several small teams can be researching concurrently.

Age old question.

[fahrbot-bot (874524)]

"We don't know why cancer cells decide to move away from their primary site to other parts in the body."

Why did the cancer cell cross the road? To metastasize.

[Thank you Nullav [slashdot.org] (and others).]

Another Transparent Creature?

[Selfunfocused (1215732)]

I just read about the transparent frog [pinktentacle.com]. Did Japanese scientists do this one too? I mean, I've known they had a transparency fetish ever since I stumbled on that hentai site but this is ridiculous!

More to the point...

[entee (1234920)]

The real question to ask here is whether the spreading they observed has anything to do with how human cancers actually work.

1.) I think it's safe to say noone contracts cancer by getting injected with a tumor
2.) A melanoma (external skin cancer) would probably never originate inside the abdominal cavity. In other words, by implanting it you have already "metastasized" it.

and most importantly,

3.) It's a fish. It's not a human. It's not even a mammal. It's not even warm blooded. In other words, whil

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[NorbrookC (674063)]

So, clearly, cancer does not work the same way in humans and mice.

You're mistaking treatment with mechanisms. It turns out the basic mechanisms in cancer development are similar across species. The complete picture is still not known - which is why the "War on Cancer" turns out to have not produced the "cures" that were expected back in the seventies. Cancer is a generic term, covering a wide range of individual and different diseases. Understanding the biology behind it is what has been a slow, pa

picture of the fish

[roman_mir (125474)]

Below is the picture of the transparent zebra fish:

\_______^
  > | | | | | >
/-------V

Another method...

[X86Daddy (446356)]

Glofish are the same species, with a genetic hack to express green, yellow, or red flourescent protien in their muscle tissue. After the initial release of the red ones, which still had the black and silvery pigment expressions, and had bad reviews for being "dim", the company that "makes" them switched their stock to ones that expressed the flourescent protien coupled with these same types of albinism. Glofish purchased now days are very brightly colored as a result of no competing layers of skin pigment

Talk About...

[Nom du Keyboard (633989)]

Talk about being naked in an entirely new kind of way.

Re:ew

[Ctrl-Z (28806)]

I'd like to see how you look with a fluorescent tumour inserted into your abdominal cavity.

Re:ew

[omeomi (675045)]

I'd like to see how you look with a fluorescent tumour inserted into your abdominal cavity.

It would be ironic if they cured cancer, but they had to make you transparent first...

Re:ew

[Bloke down the pub (861787)]

Being transparent would be pretty cool. You could eat loads of spinach, then loads of oranges, then beetroot and watch your insides impersonate a traffic light.

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[by Anonymous Coward]

>Zebrafish are genetically similar to humans in many ways

Yeah, yeah. That's what I kept telling the cops. They said, "'k, son, maybe so, but they're still underaged."

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here in court all week. Don't forget to tip your waiter, and don't eat the fish platter.

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[by Anonymous Coward]

>> that fish looks gross

Just wait 'till it poops.

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[Bloke down the pub (861787)]

At least you'd have some advanced warning!

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[afedaken (263115)]

The difference is that the glass catfish you linked to is a complete PITA to breed comparatively speaking, while the zebra fish engages in free (and prolific) love.

here there be humor

[Dr. Eggman (932300)]

See people, we can create freakish nightmares of creation without even using genetic modification! Really, being afraid of the unnatural qualities of "Frankenfood" makes about as much sense as being afraid of "Boo-Berry" cereal.

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[flyingsquid (813711)]

See people, we can create freakish nightmares of creation without even using genetic modification! Really, being afraid of the unnatural qualities of "Frankenfood" makes about as much sense as being afraid of "Boo-Berry" cereal.

I have a deathly phobia of Boo-Berry cereal, you insensitive clod!

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[mrxak (727974)]

People should probably be more scared about what's added to their cereal than a little gene splicing.

Royal Rainbow

[Valdrax (32670)]

I can just picture it now... "Here's the fish you ordered sir". "But wait, its an empty plate, I don't see the fish".

Strange. The Emperor seems quite fond of the dish...

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[HeroreV (869368)]

How would we kill all the regular deer once we made the glowing deer?

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[scottv67 (731709)]

In the US there are a million DVCs (deer-vehicle crashes) per year, costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars of damage:

I have a much cheaper solution that, when applied to the deer, will greatly reduce the number of car-deer accidents:
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/ExpFCAR.jpg [nildram.co.uk]

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[by Anonymous Coward]

Animal models are how you do science to see what genes do.

In particular, zebrafish are popular for studying developmental biology, because they're clear as embryos and scientists can watch an organism form - in particular, they can mess up some genes and see what effect that has on the fish's development.

What's great about this clear fish line is that it brings the same see-through-vertebrate benefits to all kinds of other researchers.

Think of it as a debugging tool. It's a way to get printf stateme