Abstract

The zebrafish has become a widely used model organism because of its fecundity, its morphological and physiological similarity to mammals, the existence of many genomic tools and the ease with which large, phenotype-based screens can be performed. Because of these attributes, the zebrafish might also provide opportunities to accelerate the process of drug discovery. By combining the scale and throughput of in vitro screens with the physiological complexity of animal studies, the zebrafish promises to contribute to several aspects of the drug development process, including target identification, disease modelling, lead discovery and toxicology.

Author affiliations

1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
2. Developmental Biology Laboratory, Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.

Correspondence to: Randall T. Peterson¹ Email: peterson@cvrc.mgh.harvard.edu

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