Marine Biology Commons^™

Investigating The Roles Of Lhx1a, Lhx1b, And Lhx5 In Zebrafish Spinal Cord Interneuron Specification And Function, Samantha Balakirsky

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Located in the vertebral column, the human spine is responsible for regulating body movements and receiving sensory input about pain and touch. Currently, few treatments for neurological diseases and spinal cord injuries exist, partly because we know little about how a fully functioning spinal cord is constructed. As such, studying spinal cord development, specifically neuronal specification and patterning, should be useful for developing better treatments for people with spinal cord injuries and diseases. Zebrafish are a prime model organism for studying neuronal specification because their transparent embryos develop outside the mother, allowing us to easily examine gene expression, cell movements …