Ongoing projects in the laboratory include:
- Engineering and validation of conditional (floxed) zebrafish mutants. We are using our recently published oligonucleotide- mediated CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to insert loxP sites into the zebrafish genome. Floxed alleles are crossed to various CreERT2 drivers to achieve tissue-specific loss of function. We are gearing up to test if loss of function will lead to severe regeneration defects, as recently observed for our tbx5a gene trap mutant.
- Engineering and validation of epitope-tagged transcription factors in order to understand gene regulatory programs of heart regeneration.
- Identification and testing of candidate regeneration enhancers. Here we use a variety of tools, from Tol2-mediated random transgenesis and phiC31-mediated targeted transgenesis to induction of mutations using CRISPR/Cas9.
- Understanding the mechanisms and outcomes of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Specifically, we are investigating if the homologous chromosome can be used to repair a CRISPR/Cas-induced double strand break.