When Irena Jevtov decided to use coral for her postdoctoral research at MIT about the immune system, she had questions: Where could she find research-grade coral, and how do you take care of it?

“I was told that there is a great fish expert, Mr. London,’’ said Jevtov, standing in an MIT basement room stacked six rows high with 1,000 tanks holding 30,000 silvery zebra fish.