Zebrafish Wound Healing Model for Drug Screening

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic wounds represent a serious health problem, exacerbated by the aging population and a significant increase in the number of diabetic patients. Slow or impaired wound healing is also a problem for immunosuppressed or bedridden individuals. Defects in the angiogenesis process are associated with slow or absence of wound healing. Although stimulating angiogenesis in chronic wounds has been shown to accelerate wound healing, drug discovery in this area has been slow. One of the major hurdles in developing effective therapeutics with this approach is that conventional in vivo assays, such as mouse and rat wound healing models, are costly and labor intensive. This SBIR aims to develop an in vivo zebrafish model to screen drugs that can improve wound healing by stimulating the process of angiogenesis. This SBIR will investigate embryogenesis, patterning, wound healing rate and angiogenic response during wound hea|ing. A zebrafish wound healing model will assist in streamlining the drug discovery process.