Cancer is one of the most worrisome diseases in developed countries. It causes 7 million deaths each year worldwide, mostly as a result of the development of secondary tumors (metastases). Unfortunately, the generation of metastases in healthy tissues from a primary tumor is totally unpredictable and we still lack effective treatments for preventing the metastatic process.

Zebrascreen uses zebrafish embryos for screening every step of the metastatic progression in real time:
– loss of cell polarity;
– cellular motility;
– matrix degradation;
– migration through the extra cellular matrix;
– intravasation/extravasation into blood vessels and proliferation in tissue.
ZebraScreen is a novel and potent technology for screening and identifying compounds able to prevent metastatic initiation and progression in vivo.

Zebrascreen allows for a high-throughput screening of compound libraries to identify candidates that affect not only one step in the metastatic development, but the whole process. We are able to simultaneously analyze the in vivo toxicity of each compound from the very early stages of screening, through embryo development and in every tissue. This strategy enables us to eliminate any compound presenting the slightest toxicity.