The overall focus of our research is on identifying and characterizing novel mediators of innate immunity. We employ the zebrafish model: 1) to study the genetic and functional evolution of innate immune receptors, 2) for examining the immunotoxicological effects of environmental chemicals, and 3) as a model for identifying novel mediators of immunity. Our studies on the evolution of immune receptors integrates genomic and transcriptomic data from all vertebrate lineages.