Chan, Joanne

I have always been interested in receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathways in normal physiology and in disease conditions. The zebrafish provides an ideal model system to examine signal transduction in an intact vertebrate organism. My research is focused on blood vessel formation as it relates to tumor angiogenesis during cancer progression.

Like many zebrafish researchers, I am still amazed by the optical clarity of the transparent zebrafish embryo and its rapid development over the first few days of life. It is especially well-suited for vascular biology studies, as blood flow and blood vessel function can be easily visualized using a dissecting microscope. As a vertebrate organism, its genes are highly conserved with human genes, so that data generated from the zebrafish system can be applicable to humans. New technologies are constantly being developed by the zebrafish community. These combined advantages contribute to the current enthusiasm over the use of the fish as a model system.

Our laboratory is focused on critical genes that control endothelial cell function and blood vessel formation. We are pursuing a sensitized genetic screen for mutations in angiogenic genes. It is our hope that positional cloning of these mutants will reveal critical genes for angiogenesis that might become novel targets for anti-angiogenic therapies.