DR. SARAH J. CHILDS

B.Sc. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Toronto) - Assistant Professor,
Department Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Affiliations: Member - The Alberta Children's Hospital Institute for Child and Maternal Health, Associate Member-Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute Member-Genes and Development Research Group

Research Interests:

We are interested in angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels develop.  Our approach is to use genetic screens to identify mutants with defects in cardiovascular development.  We then clone the gene underlying each defect.  We use zebrafish as a model system for many reasons, but most importantly, as a vertebrate, their cardiovascular system is very similar to that of mammals.  Furthermore, there is close similarity from a genetic point of view.  To date, any gene which has been found to be important for zebrafish vascular development has been found to be important for human or mouse vascular development as well.

Zebrafish are a common tropical fish which develop as transparent, externally fertilized embryos.  We can observe their development during all stages of embryogenesis under a microscope.  This allows us to do very detailed screens for subtle genetic defects, and is in contrast to mammals which develop in utero and are inaccessible.  The large number of progeny of a zebrafish allows quantitative genetic screening.

We have screened mutant zebrafish for vascular defects, and have identified two types of mutants.  The out of bounds mutant has a defect in vascular patterning, resulting in vessels growing in random directions in the embryo.  The out of bounds gene may be a molecule that normally inhibits blood vessel growth during development.  We have also identified four complementation groups of  mutants which initially develop a normal vascular system, but soon develop fatal hemorrhages in their brains shortly after circulation begins.  We hypothesize these genes are critical for establishing and maintaining vascular integrity.  Current projects involve the cloning of the genes underlying these phenotypes, as well as biological characterization of the mutants.

Personnel:

Click here for the Child's lab website

View Pub Med for Recent publications & abstracts

Recent Publications:

• Christie TL, Carter A, Rollins EL, Childs SJ. Syk and Zap-70 function redundantly to promote angioblast migration. Developmental Biology. 2010 Apr 1;340(1):22-9.
• Lamont RE, Vu W, Carter AD, Serluca FC, MacRae CA, Childs SJ. Hedgehog signaling via angiopoietin1 is required for developmental vascular stability.  Mechanisms of Development. 2010 Apr;127(3-4):159-68.
• Zuccolo J, Bau J, Childs SJ, Goss GG, Sensen CW, Deans JP. Phylogenetic analysis of the MS4A and TMEM176 gene families. PLoS One. 2010 Feb 23;5(2):e9369.
• Zeng L, Carter AD, Childs SJ. miR-145 directs intestinal maturation in zebrafish. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009 Oct 20;106(42):17793-8.
• Lamont RE, Lamont EJ, Childs SJ. Antagonistic interactions among Plexins regulate the timing of intersegmental vessel formation. Developmental Biology. 2009 Jul 15;331(2):199-209. 
•  D. C. Callander, R. E. Lamont, S. J. Childs and S. McFarlane. (2007). Expression of multiple class three semaphorins in the retina and along the path of zebrafish retinal axons. Developmental Dynamics 236, 2918-2924. 
• S. Georgijevic, Y. Subramanian, E. L. Rollins, O. Starovic-Subota, A. C. Tang and S. J. Childs. (2007). Spatiotemporal expression of smooth muscle markers in developing zebrafish gut. Developmental Dynamics 236, 1623-32. 
•  J. Liu, S. D. Fraser, P. W. Faloon, E. L. Rollins, J. Vom Berg, O. Starovic-Subota, A. L. Laliberte, J. N. Chen, F. C. Serluca and S. J. Childs. (2007). A bPix-Pak2a signaling pathway regulates cerebral vascular stability in zebrafish. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104, 13990-13995.
•  R. E. Lamont, E. J. Lamont and S. J. Childs. (2009). Antagonistic interactions among Plexins regulate the timing of intersegmental vessel formation. Developmental Biology 331, 199-209.

Contact Information:

The University of Calgary,
G68 Heritage Medical,
3330 Hospital Drive NW,
Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2N 4N1
Phone: (403) 220-8277
Fax: (403) 270-2211,
E-mail: schilds [at] ucalgary [dot] ca