I'm a dedicated, experienced and well-published researcher.
My latest research idea is to identify genes that cause autism. Nothing new there. A bunch of investigators are busy scouring the human genome for such genes and they're making some progress. The way these investigators start is to look for families in which autism runs. They then analyze the family tree for those genes that might be associated with autism. Can you identify the limitation of this approach?
Well, a serious limitation is that you can identify only those genes that are affected in a known and living victim. What about those genes that COULD cause the disease but have not yet manifested themselves in any affected human? How could you discover them except for waiting until somebody out there gets the disease from one of those as yet undiscovered autism genes?
One way around this difficulty is to use an animal model for autism. But which one? Our goal is to find these hidden autism genes. So we need to find an animal model in which we can examine EVERY gene in a systematic fashion. We're talking about each and every one of the 30-50,000 genes that each one of us carries!!
So we need an animal model in which that is feasible.
That animal model is the zebrafish! Yes, that little and insignificant zebrafish!
The zebrafish is being successfully used to identify EACH and EVERY gene among those 30-50,000 genes that are important for normal development. It's the same challenge we're faced with when trying to find EACH and EVERY gene that can cause autism.
So my proposal is to use the zebrafish to find those autism genes that will never be found by looking only at
autistic humans.
How would we go about finding these genes? The same way the people that study development are doing it. We simply
mutate EACH and EVERY gene in the zebrafish and then we look for mutant zebrafish that have become autistic.
Your obvious next question is: an autistic zebrafish??
Yes, I'm proposing that there is a way to define an autistic fish. At the moment I want to keep that
definition close to my chest so the idea doesn't get stolen.
But if you're interested in hearing more and are considering supporting this research with a donation, send me
a message or e-mail and we can discuss my ideas further.
The non-profit agency that will handle donations and will administer the funds is East Bay Institute for Research and Education, or
EBIRE . Their URL is
http://www.ebire.org . Check them
out!
Please send your tax-deductible contributions to EBIRE, 150 Muir Road, Martinez, CA 94553. Don't forget to designate your donation for Zebrafish Research.