Summary of the science
By observing how other organisms grow, we can learn a lot about our own development. The Stainier lab look at heart development using Zebrafish, a type of fresh water fish, because they are great for research. For one thing, they have see-through embryos, which makes it easy to image and observe the development of internal organs. This allowed them to watch the zebrafish heart grow and observe how it functions.
About the research
The Stainier lab focuses on studying the development of organs, particularly the heart, during metazoan development and evolution. They use zebrafish as a model organism as they offer several experimental advantages: external fertilisation, abundant offspring, and transparent embryos. Through genome-wide screens, they have discovered mutations that affect heart formation and function. They employ cellular and molecular biology, embryology, and genetics to analyse these mutations and understand the mechanisms underlying early cardiac morphogenesis.
About the illustration
As the title suggests, the talk revolves around the development of the zebrafish heart. We were able to access figures that visualised the zebrafish heart, so we used these to illustrate the heart in as much detail as possible. We kept the lines in white and preserved the transparency of the 3D structure, to imply that the image had been taken from a microscope or imaging aid.