A new microscope to study the zebrafish heart

Funding towards a Zeiss Z.1 single plane illumination microscope (SPIM)

The BHF is helping researchers at the University of Sheffield provide world-leading facilities for heart research by contributing £243,000 towards a new state-of-the-art microscope. The University of Sheffield is known for its work on zebrafish and has the largest concentration of zebrafish heart researchers in the UK. Zebrafish are interesting to heart researchers because unlike us, they can repair their own hearts after if it is damaged. By studying zebrafish, researchers hope they can find clues to repairing the human heart after damage. Zebrafish embryos are transparent, allowing researchers to use microscopes to study live zebrafish, individual cells and tissues in minute detail. The BHF are now contributing towards a new state-of-the-art microscope called a ‘single plane illumination microscope’ and associated computing equipment so researchers at Sheffield can study the heart and circulatory systems of zebrafish. The new microscope, costing £486,000 in total, will allow scientists to study how cells behave and work within the living zebrafish in much greater detail than any other species, and in more detail than they were able to achieve before. This new microscope will provide a fantastic facility for those studying heart and circulatory disease in Sheffield and is essential to learn more about the zebrafish and how we could exploit its biology to treat heart and circulatory disease in people. It will also encourage new zebrafish scientists to work in Sheffield, and encourage more scientists to use the zebrafish model to support their research findings from other animals. The researchers hope this new equipment will help Sheffield become an internationally recognised centre for zebrafish research.