After graduating from Kiev University in 1976, Vladimir Korzh got his PhD in developmental biology in 1981 at the Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology in Moscow. He worked as a researcher in the same institute until 1990 when he moved as a postdoc to the University of Tromsø, Norway and started using zebrafish as a model of vertebrate neurodevelopment. Later, he moved to the University of Umeä, Sweden and in 1995 started a laboratory of fish developmental biology at the ex-Institute of Molecular Agrobiology in Singapore before joining the IMCB in 2002. He is an Associate Professor.

The basic mechanisms of cell differentiation are similar among different species; mutations of evolutionarily conserved genes that are hierarchically arranged in signaling pathways often lead to similar abnormalities in various vertebrates, from zebrafish to human. Hence, information obtained through molecular analysis of cell differentiation in wild type zebrafish and its mutants might be helpful in understanding those human hereditary diseases, where similar elements of evolutionary conserved mechanisms may be impaired.

To date, Dr. Korzh and members of his group have discovered many genes involved in formation of the body axis and neural differentiation. The role of these genes in the specification of cell fate during development needs to be analyzed. To this end the zebrafish embryos are manipulated by cell ablation, labeling and transplantation and gene activity is regulated in a whole embryo or in specific cells/groups of cells in vivo. Currently, scientists in Dr. Korzh’s group are focussed on obtaining mutations in genes under the study and/or mimicking effects of mutation. They have developed novel research tools to reveal and modulate the activity of genes involved in development. These include, firstly, an efficient method of insertional transgenesis using the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged transposon that is used to reveal the activity of regulatory elements (enhancers) that modulate gene activity in a tissue-specific manner. The transgenic zebrafish presents a very useful research tool that allows the continuous analysis of gene expression in the living embryo during the whole period of development and maturation. Recently the ZETRAP database containing information about transgenic ET lines has been developed in the lab. Secondly, a novel technique of massive electroporation of DNA into a neural tube of a zebrafish embryo has solved a long-standing problem in analysing of gene function during late neurodevelopment in the zebrafish. For a detailed protocol click here.  

As a result, the gene function during neural development can be better understood. For example, Tbx-2 transcriptional regulators function in the control of cell fate during formation of the notochord, neural plate, facial skeleton, heart, etc. Similarly, a discovery of the zebrafish genes encoding receptors that mediate chemotaxis helped to understand developmental role of these genes in cell migration and differentiation. The enhancer-trap (ET) transgenic zebrafish lines are currently used in this and other laboratories to study the in vivo molecular mechanisms of development of structures involved in the regulation of neuroendocrine functions.

We are located in the Proteos, laboratory 8-13.