NIH Grant to Fund Immunity Systems Research
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO –In biomedical research, the zebrafish is used as a model organism because it has many biological traits that mimic those of humans. However, a greater understanding of the differences in their immunity systems could one day lead to therapies to better fight human disease.
With a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, University of Maine microbiologist Carol Kim will conduct a comparative immunology study to shed light on the distinctions that evolved in the innate immunity systems of zebrafish and mammals, such as mice and humans. Her prediction is that identifying those unique disease-fighting molecular processes in the zebrafish will provide researchers with clues to finding similar defense mechanisms as yet unidentified in humans.
Unidentified components may be masked or maintain minor roles within the complex structure of mammals