One of the world's top centers for brain science is taking a huge gamble on a tiny, transparent fish.The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus near Washington, D.C., has announced an effort to use artificial intelligence and an unusual fish called Danionella to understand how the brain controls complex behaviors like social interaction.Want the latest stories on the science of healthy living? Subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter. "It's a big, risky bet," says Gerry Rubin, Janelia's founding executive director and head of biology."But that's what makes it interesting."Janelia plans to triple the space dedicated to fish to 6,000 square feet, which will make room for thousands of new tanks.
Leaders expect that the number of scientists working on Danionella is likely to rise from about 10 to 100 or more.The payoff, they say, will be worth it — because by watching an entire fish brain function in real time, researchers at Janelia hope to learn about exactly how the brain drives behavior in other species, including humans."We all evolved from fish, and our brains share many features of the brains of fish," says Nelson Spruston, Janelia's executive director.In the race to understand our brains, Danionella has some key advantages over other more common lab critters like rodents.In most species, the brain is hidden by a skull and skin, making it hard to observe.Danionella fish, in contrast, lack the top part of their skull and have see-through skin.But Danionella isn't nearly as well understood as other lab models, like zebra fish, which are larger and only transparent in their larval stage.That's in part because Danionella cerebrum, the species favored by neuroscientists, wasn't officially identified as a separate species until 2021.
In recent years, though, it has begun appearing in more labs."Having an animal that has a clear head and a clear body [is] extremely useful for neuroscience," says Matt Lovett-Barron, a scientist who studies Danionella ...