Lifting the cloche: Jeroen Bakkers interviews Didier Stainier

Abstract

Didier Stainier is Director of the Department of Developmental Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, Germany. He became acquainted with the zebrafish model as a PhD student in Walter Gilbert's lab at Harvard, which motivated him to champion the use of this powerful model organism to study heart development as a postdoctoral fellow with Mark Fishman at Massachusetts General Hospital. Although his scientific focus has expanded significantly since then, zebrafish modelling and heart development and regeneration remain key topics in his research. The developmental biology and zebrafish modelling communities have embraced him as an inspiring mentor and advocate for basic research. Jeroen Bakkers is a group leader at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research and Professor of Molecular Cardiogenetics at the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. Jeroen did hid PhD with Herman Spaink at Leiden University, The Netherlands. A short visit to Massachusetts Institute of Technology during his doctoral training introduced him to the zebrafish model, which he applied to his PhD project. Zebrafish development remained the focus of his career, including during his postdoctoral training in the lab of Matthias Hammerschmidt at the Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and in his own lab at the Hubrecht Institute, where his group uses this powerful model organism to investigate cardiac development, disease and regeneration. Jeroen and Didier met up at a recent conference to talk about their shared interest in cardiac regeneration, a zebrafish mutant with a curious name and Didier's commitment to mentorship.

From mechanisms of heart failure to clinical heart success

“…We open this issue with an exclusive A Model for Life interview between Jeroen Bakkers and Didier Stainier ( Stainier and Bakkers, 2023 ), in which they discuss, among other topics, the zebrafish model and its advantages and disadvantages. Both scientists are leading experts in using zebrafish to model heart development, disease and regeneration, and have actively contributed to the discovery of new genes and protein functions.…”