Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)

UMaine’s Zebrafish Facility is critical to the majority of the Research Project Leaders (RPLs) on the COBRE grant. Overall, 12 UMaine faculty, their technicians, undergraduate, and graduate students use the Zebrafish Facility for their research on an annual basis. These faculty represent a number of different units at UMaine including the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Biology and Ecology, and the School of Marine Sciences. Zebrafish have been used by UMaine faculty studying many different disease processes, including influenza, muscular dystrophy, and Candida fungal infections. The Zebrafish Facility is also relevant to UMaine faculty in disciplines such as electrical and computer engineering, who are developing devices and technologies to address the prevention and treatment of human disease processes.

The Zebrafish facility, located on the 1st floor of Hitchner Hall, expanded and doubled its space in 2025. The Facility is outfitted with the Aquatic Habitats for Accelerated Bioresearch (AHAB) fish rearing system (Aquatic Habitats, Apopka, FL). This system is composed of five-foot wide, five-level, stainless steel racks using any combination of tank sizes (3 and 10 liter). Water input lines deliver UV-sterilized water to each tank through an independent valve. The fish tanks have self-cleaning bottoms and the effluent system features an optically clear design. The filter system requires minimal maintenance, and maintains high water quality, dramatically reduced disease and mortality. Read more on the CORE zebrafish fish facility page.