Caroline Beck's lab is based in Dunedin, on the South Island of New Zealand. We are part of the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago.
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Our lab uses tadpoles of the clawed frog Xenopus laevis to study how appendgaes like tails and legs develop and regenerate, and how rare genetic mutations lead to infantile onset epilepsy in children. Xenopus are an aquatic species that have been used to sudy how animals develop from a single cell to a complex organism. They are vertebrates and have four limbs (tetrapods), and their development uses many of the same genes, mechanisms and processes as human development.
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Our current work focusses on two main projects.
- REGENERATION: We are interested in how the tadpole tail, which contains spinal cord, notochord, muscles, nerves, blood vessels and fin is able to regenerate following partial amputation. Most recently we have been exploring the possibility that the skin microbiome of tadpoles influcences regenerative success.
- DEVELOPMENTAL AND EPILEPTIC ENCEPHALOPATHY (DEE): Using CRISPR/Cas9 to mimic mutations that lead to early onset epileptic syndromes in children, we have been developing techniques to track and characterise tadpole behaviour, brain activity and drug responsiveness. i
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{% capture text %} Our lab is based in the Parker Building of the Department of Zoology
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