![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magazines.uthscsa.edu\/schools\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/08\/Myron-Ignatius-zebra-fish-GCCRI-for-Future_19-e1532360122190-300x200.jpg\")
In addition, while you have to inject drugs into mice, fish swim in the water in which the drugs are dissolved, making drug screening easy.<\/p>\n
Fish also are more economical, yet they complement well research in mice. \u201cWith each mating of a pair of fish, you\u2019ll get between 100 to 200 embryos, pair that up with 100 breeding pairs every day and very quickly you can get thousands of animals for experiments. It\u2019s a beautiful genetic model, because if you have numbers, you can follow what each gene is doing in a tumor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Ignatius decided the GCCRI was an ideal place for his research because it was created specifically to support research on childhood cancers. He wanted to work in a place where people care about fighting pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ignatius partnered with the GCCRI and UT Health San Antonio to secure a $2 million Texas recruitment award from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to fund his research and his lab of approximately 40,000 fish.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s particularly thrilled to be working with Peter J. Houghton, Ph.D., who directs the GCCRI. \u201cDr. Houghton is a world expert in sarcomas,\u201d Dr. Ignatius said. \u201cHe\u2019s the one screening for drugs. It\u2019s a unique opportunity to learn and collaborate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cure rates in pediatric cancers are about 70 percent, but Dr. Ignatius is particularly focused on those children whose tumors relapse. \u201cWe know that all our treatments now are geared toward the primary tumor with radiation and chemotherapy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if the tumor comes back, there\u2019s no treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, patients who survive pediatric cancer are dying in their 30s and 40s rather than having normal life spans, highlighting the need for researchers like Dr. Ignatius, who are at the cutting edge of research into future treatments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pediatric cancer researcher brings lab of zebrafish to San Antonio in quest to fight child cancer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"magazine":[22],"issue-year":[20],"featured-story":[37],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","magazine-future","issue-year-20","featured-story-landing-page"],"yoast_head":"\n