3 research outputs found

    Transcriptome profiling of infectious diseases and cancer in zebrafish

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    Analysis of the transcriptome, the total of all expressed RNA transcripts in a cell or an organism, contributes to our understanding of gene regulation during development and disease processes and is therefore of great importance in the field of genomic research. This thesis focuses on the analysis of transcriptome complexity during infectious disease and cancer. The zebrafish was applied as an immunological model organism, due to the remarkable similarities of its immune system to that of human. The studies took advantage of novel opportunities for transcriptome profiling provided by recent developments in microarray and next generation sequencing technology that have made an enormous impact on biology. In addition to studying expression of protein coding genes, the work addressed regulatory functions of microRNAs, small non-coding RNAs playing important roles in the function of the immune system and other processes. The transcriptome data provide a valuable reference set of infection-responsive genes and microRNAs in zebrafish models and have identified microRNAs conserved between human and zebrafish liver cancer. These genomic data sets provide a strong basis for future applications of zebrafish as an infection and cancer model and contribute to the understanding of pathogenesis and the development of novel strategies for disease treatment.LEI Universiteit LeidenAnimal science
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