Nicholas Cole Lab

Dr Cole's research team is focused upon understanding and curing MND by generating zebrafish models of the disease. The fish models are created to understand how motor neurons die in MND patients. Zebrafish are an established research model organism that offers several advantages. In particular, zebrafish are transparent, allowing us to watch motor neurons degenerate in a living fish, providing a unique opportunity to visualise and understand MND as it actually happens. Several MND causing genes that produce incorrect proteins have been identified from MND patients. The Lab inserts these human genes into zebrafish which makes them produce the same proteins. His team can then try to understand the mechanism that results in motor neurone degeneration in MND/ALS. The hope is to make a breakthrough that will lead to an effective treatment or cure.