David Lyons

Biography

My lab uses zebrafish as a model to study myelination in the development central nervous system. The small size, optical transparency, relative simplicity, and rapid development of zebrafish embryos are properties that allow direct observation of entire developmental (or repair) events as they occur in live animals. We have developed a non-invasive transgenic method to induce demyelination in zebrafish and have also generated a suite of tools to visualise myelin and myelinated axons at high-resolution in live zebrafish, which allows us to observe cellular, sub-cellular and molecular behaviours during myelination, demyelination, and remyelination as they occur in a living animal.    Zebrafish are well established as a powerful system with which to identify new genes required for biological events. In a genetic screen carried out at Stanford University I identified new roles for genes with known involvement in myelination, established zebrafish models of human disease, and identified new genes required for myelination. Ongoing gene discovery screens at the Univeristy of Edinburgh will identify additional genes that regulate myelinated axon formation and function, particularly in the CNS.  Zebrafish have also become increasingly popular for drug discovery studies. Zebrafish embryos are small, aquatic, and available in very large numbers, which means that large-scale screens can be carried out in a cost-effective manner that is not possible using other animal models. This means that the effect of thousands of potential drug like compounds can be tested on whole animals at a very early stage of the drug development process. Importantly, zebrafish exhibit well-conserved responses to drugs approved for use in man, and new clinical trials based on work carried out in zebrafish are already in progress. We hope to identify compounds that can enhance the repair of myelinated axons in zebrafish, from which new therapies for humans can be developed.

Research Interest

Genetic and Cellular Mechanisms of Myelination, Neuronal Development