Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Fishing for Hearts
26 August 2013

Fishing for Hearts

This brightly-coloured bundle of tissue, a developing heart from a two-day old zebrafish, is one of the winners of the British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research awards. Little more than a thick tube of cells, it’s just starting to loop around to form the two chambers of the fish heart – the atrium, where blood flows in from the body, and the ventricle, which pushes it back out again. Zebrafish are remarkable in their ability to repair damage to their heart. If only human hearts could do similarly, then more than 150,000 people in the UK wouldn’t die of heart and circulatory diseases every year. Scientists are studying the genes and molecules underlying the curious regenerative powers of the zebrafish, in the hope of finding ways to repair our own broken hearts one day.

Written by Kat Arney

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.