Implementation of a zebrafish cancer model in diagnosis of human cancer invasion and prediction of drug responses

The purpose of this project is to develop a clinically relevant zebrafish cancer model for diagnosis and prediction of human cancer metastasis and drug responses. Current cancer diagnosis and drug response prediction are mainly based pathological assessment and molecular markers.

There have been lacking in vivo functional assays to accurately predict and diagnose cancer metastatic potentials and biological behaviors, which are crucial for effective treatment of cancer and selection of effective drugs. This proposal is designed to develop a clinically relevant animal model to fulfill the clinically unmet need.

The project will be executed through cross-disciplinary collaborations from clinical and preclinical scientists with diverse expertise, including clinical oncologists, experimental scientists, material scientists, and imaging scientists.

Each of the collaborative scientist plays a unique but yet cohesive role, which cannot be replaced by others, in facilitating the project development.

The project is planned for 3-year period and by the end of year 3 we expect to disseminate our data to the medical community as one of the formidable models for clinical use.

We expect that this model will be used by most hospitals and medical centers as a complimentary method for diagnosis of metastatic disease and prediction of anticancer drug responses. The impact of this project is enormous and millions of cancer patients would likely to benefit from our research.