Manitoba scientists exploring regenerative abilities in tropical fish [Video]

Tropical fish hold clues that two Manitoba scientists believe could help unlock regenerative abilities in humans—like the ability to regrow your own teeth or repair your own brain following an injury.

This is the kind of work that is going on inside the University of Manitoba’s new $2.5 million Rady Biomedical Fish Facility at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

Doctors Devi Atukorallaya and Benjamin Lindsey are spearheading the efforts inside the facility—the most advanced in the prairies. It houses about 2,000 zebrafish and 250 Mexican tetras.

“We’re trying to understand what’s unique, what’s special about the fish that lets them do this,” said Lindsey, a neuroscientist and assistant professor studying the zebrafish’s ability to regenerate tissue after trauma.

“We’re interested in how the brain or the spinal cord can repair after injury, and unlike mammals, these animals can actually do that.”

Benjamin Lindsey (centre) examines a tank of zebrafish …