#33: Immunofluorescence Staining of Zebrafish Retinal Ganglion Cells — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

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Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

#33: Immunofluorescence Staining of Zebrafish Retinal Ganglion Cells

Name: Ryan Henneman
Major: Neuroscience
Hometown: Antioch
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research

Abstract

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the connection between eyes and processing centers for visual information in the brain. They simply take the information acquired by the eyes and then transmit the signals to the brain. Currently, efforts to regenerate RGCs are in the early stages in humans, but in Zebrafish which are able to regenerate their RGCs; there is the opportunity to study what induces the regeneration process. In order to research these regenerative processes, it is necessary to develop better and more robust methods to label these cells. Our research is focused on improving the current methods to stain these cells using an array of antibodies including anti-TH (Tyrosine Hydroxylase) and GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) to fact-check our methods. These cells once stained by either anti-TH or GFP fluorescence can be visualized using microscopy. Using embryos from 5 days post fertilization is the ideal stage that allows for all of the proteins to be bound to that may be used by these antibodies. So far in our experiment, we have gotten the following antibodies to work to varying degrees: CHRNB2, SLC17A6, CACNB3, OTX1B, and SLIT1A. These are all markers for some of the subpopulations of retinal ganglion cells we continue to work on. The ongoing project is to optimize the efficacy of these antibodies and the clarity of the results related to these changes.

Poster file