University biologist and neuroscientist John Postlethwait will spend 2009 at the University of Wurzburg in Germany researching Fanconi anemia by studying genetic mutations in zebrafish.
Fanconi anemia is incurable and leads to bone marrow failure, and is inherited from one’s parents. According to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, Inc., founded by University President Dave Frohnmayer and wife, Lynn, if both parents have one of the 13 genes that have been linked to the disorder, there is a 25 percent chance the child will inherit the disease.
When the bone marrow fails, Postlethwait explained, the body produces fewer red and white blood cells and is at an alarming risk of leukemia.
In Germany, Postlethwait will work with professors Holger Hoehn and Manfred Schartl. Both professors nominated him for the Humboldt Research Award, which will fund a year of his research.
The award is considered prestigious, and it is given to up to 100 academic scientists each year by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, located in Bonn, Germany.
Postlethwait said he will be using zebrafish as the basis of his research because “the development and genetics of zebrafish are very similar to that in humans.” He hopes to find therapies that will cure Fanconi anemia in zebrafish. Because their genes behave similarly to those of humans, a cure in zebrafish will hopefully lead to a cure for humans.
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