Bettina Schmid

Dr. Bettina Schmid serves as Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Munich, where she heads the Fish Unit research group specializing in zebrafish models for neurodegenerative disease research.

Her primary research focuses on:

• Molecular mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through RNA-binding protein analysis
• CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing for creating disease models of Alzheimer's, ALS, and FTLD
• Functional analysis of disease genes using transparent zebrafish embryos
• Therapeutic development for neurodegenerative conditions

The Fish Unit pioneered CRISPR/Cas9 applications in zebrafish (Hruscha et al., Development 2015), leveraging the species' rapid breeding cycle and optical transparency for non-invasive in vivo imaging. Her work bridges genetic modification techniques with disease mechanism studies, particularly examining protein modifications and mutation introductions relevant to human neurodegeneration.

As a core technology platform at DZNE, the Fish Unit provides zebrafish husbandry expertise and genomic editing capabilities to collaborating research groups across the institution, supporting broader neuroscience initiatives through specialized model organism services.