"It would have taken us years to screen this many drugs in mice, " says Dr. Kunkel.

WSJ: Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Zebrafish Do It��Just Too Little

Dr. Kunkel's laboratory discovered the gene causing Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 1986.

WSJ: New Muscular Dystrophy Drugs Offer Hope

Louis Kunkel, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the hospital, used zebrafish to test over 1, 200 drugs to see which ones might restore normal muscle structure.

WSJ: Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Zebrafish Do It��Just Too Little

After the 1990s was devoted to discovering the genes that play a role in muscular dystrophy and the 2000s to researching possible new therapies, this is the decade when the resulting new drugs will be introduced, says Louis Kunkel, a muscular-dystrophy researcher at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

WSJ: New Muscular Dystrophy Drugs Offer Hope