By Savannah Volkoff
Welcome to our “Friend request accepted” series! This is the 4th post in a series highlighting the different organisms used at the Superfund Research Center.
What’s a model organism?
Generally, it’s an organism (bacteria, mammal, worm, plant, fish, insect, etc.) that scientists have studied really well and so we know a lot about that organism – anywhere from its genetic code to its physiology. Not only that, but something about that organism’s life is similar to humans (metabolism, same genes, etc.). This means that the model organism can be used in exposure studies to help us understand how a chemical is toxic or why it’s safe for that organism and for humans – and it can help us understand a lot of other things.
In this post, we’ve created a Facebook-esque profile page for zebrafish! There are links in the pdf, so be sure to explore. To make things a little easier, we’ve included a video below (the same video linked to in the Zebrafish profile page).
You can also read the past posts in this series by clicking the links below…
Part 1: Mummichog (or Atlantic Killifish)
Part 2: C. Elegans (nematodes)
Part 3: Sprague dawley (rats!)
