A study that shows how individual neurons affect zebrafish movement represents the power of technology to advance neuroscience. The collaboration that made the findings possible reflects the advantages of nurturing postdocs and collaborating with them once they have moved on.

Two former postdocs in Joseph Fetcho's Cornell University neuroscience lab developed key techniques to make the study possible. Shinichi Higashijimima, now at the National Institute of Natural Sciences in Okazaki, Japan, made some of the first transgenic zebrafish and used fluorescent labelling of individual neurons that observers could watch in real time in the transparent fish. Melina Hale, now at the University of Chicago, refined the use of lasers to knock out individual neurons and was assisted by postdoc Jingyi Fan.

David McLean, a current postdoc in Fetcho's lab, used the cutting-edge techniques to make the discovery that neurons in the lower part of the spinal cord help the fish swim slowly, whereas neurons higher up in the spinal cord enable faster movement (see page 71).

“I am fortunate to have had terrific postdocs who are each expert in different experimental techniques,” Fetcho says. We are friends as well, so the collaborations are enjoyable.”