BIO295: Student Presentations- "Bio Sem"

Student Presenter: Ryan German, Biology Department

Using CRISPR/Cas-9 as a Model for Mitochondrial Rare Disease in Zebrafish

There are over 7,000 known rare diseases and 1 in 10 Americans has a rare disease, yet very little is known about them. Rare diseases are often called "orphan" diseases because the pharmaceutical industry has little incentive to research these diseases as there are not enough patients of any one disease to make research cost-effective. The Rare Disease Lab at Calvin University has been working to develop models of mitochondrial rare diseases to help the scientific community understand the cellular functions that are disrupted by mutations in the BCS1L gene with the use of gene-editing technology in zebrafish.