Elizabeth Burke, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program. She investigates the potential causality of patients’ genetic variants by utilizing zebrafish as a model organism. When not working in the lab, she spends her time caring for and playing with her new baby boy at home.
Scientists use a variety of laboratory techniques to investigate the genetic cause of human diseases. While mice and rats have been common choices for modeling human diseases in the past, the use of zebrafish is rapidly gaining popularity. Does this surprise you? Let me explain.
What is a rare disease? And how rare is “rare”? When I began my research at the NIH, I had a textbook understanding of rare diseases, but now, after four years as a postdoc in the IRP, I understand a bit more of what it means to the patients and researchers who try to help them.
Choosing to study biology in college was an easy decision for me. Deciding what I would do after college was a little more difficult. Sometimes I think back and wonder: How did I get here?
This page was last updated on Thursday, January 20, 2022
