EvoDevo in Zebrafish: Bridging Evolution, Development, and Drug Discovery
Evolutionary Developmental Biology, also known as EvoDevo, explores how developmental processes shape evolutionary change. Zebrafish, with their unique genetic and developmental features, have become a cornerstone for EvoDevo research and a powerful tool for drug discovery and toxicity testing. This article introduces the science behind EvoDevo, the advantages of zebrafish as a model, and how […]
How can zebrafish eggs help us understand climate change?
The last decade was the hottest on record, and its consequences go far beyond melting glaciers. Climate change is disrupting ecosystems, threatening food security, and putting human health at risk. To address these complex challenges, scientists need research tools that are not only robust and predictive but also ethical and scalable. That’s where New Approach […]
From promise to practice: Why alternatives to animal testing aren’t yet scalable
As described in last month’s article, New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and Non-Animal Technologies (NATs), like organoids or fish eggs, are transforming the landscape of biomedical research, toxicology, and drug development. By offering human-relevant insights while reducing or replacing animal use, they hold the promise of more ethical, predictive, and cost-effective science. So, what’s limiting their […]
Automating the sorting of Xenopus oocytes and embryos
Xenopus laevis is the scientific name of the African clawed frog. This species is native from southern Africa and inhabits slow moving water or stagnant ponds. Its facility to adapt to different environments and conditions makes it considered as an invasive species in Europe, North America and South America (1). The consequence of its invasiveness […]
The AquaSorter, a solution to automate the screening and sorting of fish eggs for the aquaculture industry
This month’s article will target the amazing news that we received in May! Bionomous was selected to receive the support of Innosuisse in the frame of the Swiss Accelerator. Our project AQUASORTER (Automation and QUAlity SORting Tools for thE aquacultuRe industry) will receive the necessary funding to adapt our current technology for the fish farms […]
Small model organisms
Over the past years, zebrafish have proven to be excellent model systems for a wide panel of experiments. We have discussed throughout our previous articles their advantages and disadvantages, how they could be incorporated to various research fields and different automation techniques which facilitate their handling in laboratories. Today we will discuss 4 other model […]
Studying zebrafish behaviour: robotics and automation
In today’s article we will take a step back from zebrafish embryos and discuss how adult zebrafish collective behaviours can be studied using robotic systems. Danio rerio, commonly known as zebrafish is a small but robust cyprinid, commonly found in food plains of the south of Asia, particularly India. They thrive in shallow and slow flowing-waters […]
High-throughput screening and automation technologies for zebrafish assays
Although zebrafish have been described numerous times as ideal organism models, manual handling of zebrafish embryos can turn out to be complex and time consuming due to their small size and the large quantities of samples usually required in an experimental setup (1). To increase efficiency of such studies, it has been crucial to develop […]