Vandana Gupta is working on identifying new genes and molecular mechanisms in muscular myopathies. She is using zebrafish as a genetic system for her studies as most of the genes and pathways in zebrafish are highly similar to that in humans. She is currently employing two approaches for these studies. In the first approach, she is studying the molecular mechanisms of gene known to have a role in muscle development and diseases. She is exploring the Alpha-actinin gene family in zebrafish to understand their functional specificity. In the second approach, she is identifying new genes in muscle development and myopathies by performing a muscle specific screen on a zebrafish chemical mutagenesis.