Headshot portrait of Elisa Zhang - Bio-X Undergraduate Fellow
2010 Undergraduate Summer Research Program Participant

Home Department: Human Biology
Supported by: Bio-X
Mentor: Anne Brunet, Associate Professor of Genetics

Elisa Zhang is a rising senior majoring in Human Biology. She has been working with the short-lived African killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri, in Professor Anne Brunet‟s lab in the department of Genetics since her sophomore year. Her group aims to develop N. furzeri as a novel model organism in aging and longevity studies. Elisa‟s research interest involves testing whether tail fin regeneration differs between the short-lived and long-lived strains of N. furzeri, and she is currently quantifying regeneration using both phenotypic and cellular methods. She hopes that her research will illuminate potential connections between tissue regeneration and aging.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 25, 2010:

Characterizing tail regeneration and wild populations' genetic structure in the short-lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri

Elisa Zhang, Dario Valenzano, Anne Brunet
[Human Biology, Genetics; Stanford University]