University of Otago zebrafish facility director Dr Julia Horsfield said she was slightly out of her comfort zone when she spoke to more than 200 people about her research at the Cure Kids fundraiser at The Savoy on Thursday night.
"I usually speak to other geeks and not an audience of generous people."
She spoke about research carried out at the University of Otago.
Diseases mutated in humans and zebrafish in a similar way because they shared some of the same genes, she said.
Many of the genetic diseases mutated in humans and fish before birth so the transparency of zebrafish eggs made it easier to research genetic change, she said.
Previous Cure Kids fundraising had helped the facility at the university grow from a few fish tanks to a school of 14,000 zebrafish, she said.
The sizeable school at the facility had been bred from some zebrafish bought from a pet shop in Northeast Valley about four years ago, Dr Horsfield said.
But the facility needed a confocal microscope, which used lasers to penetrate deep in the tissue of an animal and allowed scientists to see disease in perfect focus, she said.
The $400,000 microscope also produced "beautiful" three-dimensional images, she said.
"For us to be a world class facility, this is the type of equipment we need. We hope to get there with Cure Kids' help."
Cure Kids business development director Josie Spillane said the $35,660 raised at the fundraiser would go towards medical research and not towards equipment, such as the microscope.
However, the Tauranga-based K D Kirby Trust and Auckland-based Hugh Green Foundation had both donated $100,000 towards buying the microscope and Cure Kids was working to secure the rest of the money needed, Mrs Spillane said.
