The 1st European Zebrafish PI Meeting (EZPM 2010) will be held from 18 to 21 March 2010 in Padua, Italy. This meeting will highlight and discuss emerging aspects of zebrafish research and promote networking among European PIs attempting to set roadmaps for strategic actions.

The meeting will be supported by COST Action BM0804 EuFishBioMed, a European Network on Fish Biomedical Models – a community resource to enable effective zebrafish partnering in EU projects targeting human diseases.

The different sessions will include:

1. Plenary Talks with the purpose of presenting data and ideas on scientific issues. Plenary talks will represent 50% of the meeting
2. Plenary Workshops with the aim of inviting a few scientists from fields other than zebrafish for "top down" round table discussions
3. Parallel Workgroups (EuFishBioMed) with the aim of preparing drafts of white papers and roadmaps specifically addressing issues within the European zebrafish community
4. Plenary Workgroups summarizing conclusions and planned future actions from parallel workgroups

One session will be dedicated to discussions with companies and SMEs.

The aims of the workshops are discussions leading into the drafting of a white paper to be forwarded to the EU and other grant awarding bodies.

Selected topics for Workshops

Data Integration and Imaging

The zebrafish is an outstanding model for the systems biology of vertebrate embryo development and regeneration. One major task of the future will be to integrate our data (images, expression, genetic networks etc) into quantitative in silico models. To this end there is an increasing demand in high-resolution microscopy, data acquisition, processing, storage and integration into comprehensive models that are transparent with respect to the original experimental data. This will be an issue for physicists and bioinformatics that cannot be solved within the zebrafish community. The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop will be to identify our needs and to discuss the best strategies with invited experts.

Development, Organogenesis and Regeneration

In the last years, great progress has been made in understanding the molecular and cellular cascades driving vertebrate development (including organogenesis). However, much effort has to be made to define how many of the developmental steps are used in regenerative events. This workshop will attempt to better define the interface between development and regeneration ii) compare what is known of the characteristics of adult stem cells/progrenitors in fish and mammals, iii) identify the aspects of regenerative biology in which the zebrafish could provide a critical advantage iv) discuss scientific and technological advances required to expand our contribution to the regenerative field and v) explore the possibility of using the zebrafish in development of regenerative therapies. A set of international experts in the regenerative field will be invited to help focusing on strategic steps.

Chemical Biology

Small molecules are chemical probes that can provide important insight into cellular and developmental processes, as well as providing drug-like leads. Phenotypic screening in zebrafish, in which small molecules are screened on zebrafish embryos for changes in a specific phenotype, is an important complementary approach to genetic screening and in vitro based drug discovery. In this workshop we will present and discuss small molecule screening methodology and libraries, and highlight how small molecules can reveal new developmental and disease processes and therapies.

Neurophysiology and Behaviour

Behavior is the most prominent read-out of nervous system function. Recently, genetic, physiological and behavioral tools have been developed that pave the way to link neural development with neural function and, ensuing, behavior. In this workshop we will highlight these novel approaches and discuss what additional technological investments are needed to realize the full potential of using the zebrafish to understand vertebrate neurobehavior.

Local Organising Committee

Francesco Argenton, Natascia Tiso, Enrico Moro
University of Padua, Padua, Italy

Organising secretariat

Azuleon Meetings

With the support of