A National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) team has found that zebrafish could potentially be used in place of mice in drug addiction research, the institutes said on Monday.
Humans might appear starkly different from zebrafish, but they share 70 percent of the same genes, NHRI Center for Neuropsychiatric Research investigator Chen Hwei-hsien (陳慧諴) said in an institutes news release.
In a study published in the scientific journal Addiction Biology in December last year, the zebrafish conditioned place preference paradigm was found to have predictive validity in drug reward, extinction and reinstatement experiments, said Chen, who participated in the research.
Photo courtesy of the National Health Research Institutes
The paradigm has been widely used to determine the reinforcing effect of naturally rewarding or addictive substances in rodents.
Predictive validity refers to the ability of a test or other measurements to predict a future outcome.
Zebrafish paradigms had a similar predictive validity to that of mice, the current most common research animal, and are much cheaper to breed, making them a strong substitute for drug addiction research, Chen said.
The low cost of breeding the fish could help bring about a model for legally categorizing new drug types, particularly addictive substances that are constantly evolving to evade regulation, she said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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