Project description

Research in the Venero Galanternik lab focuses on the meninges, an extremely important but poorly understood set of membranous tissues that envelop and protect the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). The meninges are essential for waste removal from the brain and brain homeostasis, and they protect the CNS from mechanical insults and infection. Our ongoing goals are focused on the understanding of the biological events regulating meningeal formation, meningeal cells functions and investigating the potential crosstalk between the meninges and their adjacent tissues during homeostasis and disease. Using zebrafish, our lab has established a strong anatomical, cellular and molecular foundation for meningeal research. The genetic and experimental accessibility of the zebrafish, combined with the ability to perform high-resolution optical imaging of the brain surface through the thin, transparent skull of developing and even adult animals, make zebrafish an ideal research organism for studying the meninges. Our studies have revealed that, contrary to classical descriptions of teleost fishes, zebrafish have complex, multilayered meninges that strongly resemble those of mammals, making the fish a powerful and translatable model for comparative studies of meningeal development, function, and pathology.

Keywords: zebrafish, developmental biology, meninges, microscopy, brain, scRNA-seq