Ela Knapik still remembers the first zebrafish she saw under a microscope鈥攖wo days old, no bigger than an eyelash, tail wiggling, heart visibly beating. That was more than 20 years ago during her search for a postdoc position. That tiny fish has held her attention ever since and helped unravel many of the biological mysteries she has published about during her professional career. In recognition of these scientific accomplishments, Knapik was named a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science鈥攐ne of the highest honors in science鈥攂ecoming the 100th 菠萝视频 scientist to earn this distinction.
鈥淎t first I thought, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 a nice honor,鈥欌�� Knapik said of learning she鈥檇 been named an AAAS fellow. 鈥淭he significance of this distinguished award didn鈥檛 become apparent to me until I gathered with roughly 250 other exceptional honorees from around the nation at the induction ceremony in Washington, D.C.鈥�
The recognition came during a remarkable stretch of work for Knapik, a professor of medicine and of cell and developmental biology in the School of Medicine. This spring, she published a paper in聽Genome Medicine聽showing that a compound called succinate reduced musculoskeletal damage in zebrafish with BCARD syndrome, a rare connective-tissue disorder. That鈥檚 significant because there鈥檚 currently no treatment for the disorder in humans. Another study, published in 2025 in JCI Insight, described a newly identified seizure disorder associated with a breakdown in how cells transport proteins.
Behind both papers is a philosophy Knapik returns to often: Disease is essentially a complex engineering problem. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 fix things if you don鈥檛 understand how they work,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is my quest: to understand how the body works, how disease emerges when things go wrong, and what can be done to fix the problem.鈥�
Quick-Turn Discovery
Knapik鈥檚 lab uses zebrafish to study human disease at the genetic level. Because zebrafish share much of their genetic makeup with humans, and because their embryos develop transparently outside the mother鈥檚 body, researchers can watch development in real time. Using CRISPR and mRNA injections, Knapik鈥檚 team can recreate a human patient鈥檚 genetic defect inside a zebrafish embryo, then watch what happens as it develops. Her lab keeps approximately 5,000 fish, and discovery can happen fast: Zebrafish lay eggs, and researchers have roughly 30 minutes after fertilization to inject a single-cell embryo so the modification locks in. Within days, the team can see results. The fish are also used to screen potential drug treatments, letting researchers test a compound鈥檚 effects at a scale and speed that few other animal models allow.
It Takes a Lab
This work depends on a team of postdoctoral fellows, students and technicians who conduct experiments, maintain the zebrafish colony and pursue new research questions that emerge from the lab鈥檚 daily work.聽Knapik also credits two broader collaborations as central to her research. Within the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, she works closely with Dylan Burnette, associate professor, to explore foundational questions in basic biology. And her collaboration with Nancy Cox, the founding director of 菠萝视频 Genetics Institute鈥攕he calls one of the most influential forces on her creative thinking. She鈥檚 able to pair her zebrafish models and patient-derived cells with large-scale genetic and computational tools that let her connect a single gene to a broader pattern of human disease.
In this environment, a good idea can come to anyone in her lab鈥攁 student, a technician, Knapik herself. When it does, she said, those are the best days on the job. 鈥淵ou see it on their face, and you just know what they鈥檙e thinking: This is what we have to try next, and we need to do it right now. It can鈥檛 wait for tomorrow.鈥�
Where Curiosity Goes from Here
Knapik is thinking about what comes next for her field too鈥攊ncluding how artificial intelligence fits in. She鈥檚 clear-eyed about its limits: It can sift through decades of accumulated research and data faster than any lab could alone. But discovery itself, she said, still begins with a person asking a question no one has asked before.
It鈥檚 that impulse that motivates her every day. 鈥淲hat gets me out of bed bright and early and ready to go is the knowledge that someone is waiting for what we might find,鈥� she said.
Though Knapik doesn鈥檛 see patients herself, she often hears from far-away families hoping she can help a sick relative. She can鈥檛. Not directly. But every research discovery gives physicians another piece of knowledge that might help them鈥攁nd a broad range of patients around the world.
By Lena Anthony, BS鈥�03
