Examining the Genetic Basis of Cerebral Palsy

This project focuses on the development of zebrafish models of cerebral palsy (CP), which is a neurodevelopmental movement disease. Zebrafish knockout lines of putative CP genes are evaluated for changes in behaviour, morphology and brain anatomy to identify underlying disease mechanisms. Known environmental risk factors of CP are induced through small molecule treatments to examine potential gene-environment interaction. This will allow for a better understanding of the disease mechanisms underlying CP as well as hopefully pave the way for new avenues of treatment and prevention in the future.