The word ZOOBS refers to "zebrafish boobs". It describes zebrafish laboratory fish that have been genetically manipulated or transplanted with breast epithelium xenotransplant. Scientists create ZOOBS to
study the genetic pathways underlying breast
cancer using zebrafish (zebrafish is a great genetic model for science, but they are not mammals and therefore, they do not have boobs).
By extension,
FOOBS refers to any fish modified for the same research purposes.
The term ZOOBS was initially defined by a bunch of talented young scientists from the Rosenblatt's lab at the Huntsman
Cancer Institute in Utah.