Zebrafish Habitat Expansion - Abstract UMaine’s Zebrafish Facility is critical to the success of most NIH funded faculty at UMaine. Overall, 12 UMaine faculty, their technicians, undergraduate, and graduate students use the Zebrafish Facility for their research on an annual basis. These faculty represent a number of different units at UMaine including the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, the School of Biology and Ecology, and the School of Marine Sciences. Zebrafish have been used by UMaine faculty studying many different disease processes, including influenza, muscular dystrophy, and Candida fungal infections. The Zebrafish Facility is also relevant to UMaine faculty in disciplines such as electrical and computer engineering, who are developing devices and technologies to address the prevention and treatment of human disease processes. UMaine’s current zebrafish facility typically operates at 98-100% capacity. Although an excellent facility that is 93% base-funded by the University of Maine; the limited capacity hinders all investigators who use the zebrafish model. UMaine’s first Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant, which started in April 2023, provides the initial nucleus of funding for converting a teaching laboratory into an additional zebrafish facility that will more than double the available space for zebrafish. The remainder of the necessary funding for the renovation is being provided by the University of Maine, demonstrating the deep commitment of UMaine to this project. The Office of the Vice President for Research at UMaine has also committed funds to purchase some necessary equipment including the live feed systems, dosing system, spawning tanks, and crossing shelves (see letter of support). Here, we propose to purchase the central filtration system for the facility, as well as 11 double-sided racks and the AquaTouch 2 monitoring system. These will more than double our current capacity for stock maintenance and increase daily breeding capacity from 25 to 175 tanks per day. This increased capacity is necessary for the continued success of this shared zebrafish facility. Thus, receipt of this grant will have a tremendous impact on research growth at the University of Maine.
