Evaluating Procedures for Cleaning Birds and Other Wildlife Affected by Oil Spills
DATE: February 2021
Texas State University | Chemistry & Biochemistry
Angel Sandoval, Student Researcher

The Hamilton products are to be used to inject solution intramuscularly into Xiphophorus fishes. A 26 gauge needle has been used before, but a significant amount of trauma was noted at the site of injection. The solution injected is cas9 mRNA along with sgRNA which targets a key regulator of a naturally developing melanoma in these Xiphophorus fishes. The CRISPR solution injected will hopefully knockout this key regulator of melanoma and elucidate the molecular mechanism responsible for the regulation of melanoma formation.

The requested Hamilton products will assist in elucidating the molecular and genetic regulator of melanoma in Xiphophorus fishes with translational potential. The gene being targeted in our fish is also found in the human genome. We previously published our results in PNAS describing how this gene is the sole regulator of melanoma in Xiphophorus. Knocking this gene out with your Hamilton products and our CRISPR solution will provide concrete evidence that our gene is responsible for inhibiting melanoma formation. Our paper can be found at : https://www.pnas.org/content/117/47/29786#sec-6

Our lab houses the Xiphophorus fish who first elucidated the fact that melanoma is caused by genetics. Our fish lines have been maintained since the 1920’s, and we have strains of Xiphophorus who have been inbred for over 100 generations which facilitates the study of genetic factors of disease for the fact that any phenotypic changes are due to changes in the environment (ie CRISPR manipulation) considering the fish’s uniform genome.

Website: https://www.xiphophorus.txstate.edu