2-­‐day Master class Zebrafish brain and behaviour: from gene to ecology Aimed at: post-­‐docs, PhD students, advanced Master students as well as e.g. staff members and animal welfare officers interested in zebrafish brain and behaviour. Dates: Thursday, November 20th 2014; Friday, November 21st 2014 Organizers: Dr. Ruud van den Bos Professor Gert Flik Department of Organismal Animal Physiology Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Venue: Huygens Building, Faculty of Science, Radboud University Nijmegen Heyendaalseweg 135, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Why zebrafish? Zebrafish are increasingly used as animal model in neuro-­‐behavioural and neuro-­‐endocrine research. Reasons for this are, among others, low cost, easy management and a well-­‐defined genome. Given this, they replace mice in many paradigms. While this may be valid from one perspective, zebrafish are clearly different from mammals: they are ectothermic rather than endothermic, their nervous system is differently organised with different properties than of mammals, they have a duplicated genome, and their behaviour is tailored to an aquatic environment rather than a terrestrial environment. Thus, it is relevant and timely to address questions of the phylogenetic position, neuro-­‐anatomy, behaviour and ecology of zebrafish. Topics: Unique properties and phylogenetic position of zebrafish; the ins and out of the zebrafish brain; behaviour of zebrafish; ‘ecology’ of zebrafish (‘the wild and the lab’); practicals/demonstrations While the focus is on the zebrafish during the Master class, the lectures are of course also of relevance to students and researchers of other fish species. Lecturers: Gert Flik (RUN; http://www.ru.nl/organphy/people/gert-­‐flik/); Ruud van den Bos (RUN; http://www.ru.nl/organphy/people/ruud-­‐van-­‐den-­‐bos/); Marnix Gorissen (RUN; http://www.ru.nl/organphy/people/marnix-­‐gorissen/); Lars Ebbesson (Bergen, Norway; http://www.miljo.uni.no/?page_id=854) Programme Day 1 09.00-­‐10.00 hrs. Welcome 10.00-­‐12.00 hrs. Unique properties and phylogenetic position of zebrafish (genome duplication, plasticity, ectothermic, evolution…) Gert Flik (RUN) 12.00-­‐13.00 hrs. Lunch (served at restaurant Huygens Building) 13.00-­‐14.45 hrs. Neuro-­‐anatomy of the zebrafish brain (classic neuroanatomy, molecular tools, delineation of pallial areas, homology mammalian brain, development…) Lars Ebbesson (Bergen, Norway) 14.45-­‐15.15 hrs. Tea and Coffee break 15.15-­‐17.00 hrs. Behaviour of zebrafish (e.g. anxiety, fear, reward, social behaviour, spatial learning) Ruud van den Bos (RUN) Day 2 10.00-­‐12.00 hrs. Ecology of zebrafish: outside and inside the laboratory environment (shaping behaviour in relation to the wild and lab environment; selection pressures at different life-­‐stages, genetic drift in the laboratory, strain differences) Ruud van den Bos (RUN) 12.00-­‐13.00 hrs. Lunch (served at restaurant Huygens Building) 13.00-­‐15.00 hrs. Demonstrations at the facilities of the Department of Organismal Animal Physiology Marnix Gorissen (RUN) 15.00 hrs-­‐ … Drinks and farewell Cost: 200 Euro (including course material, lunch, drinks et cetera) Information: Ruud van den Bos (ruudvdbos@science.ru.nl) Registration: Daisy Maurits (d.maurits@science.ru.nl) Payment (before November 15th): account number IBAN: NL08ABNA0231247834 (BIC: ABNANL2A), St. KU Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, projectnumber 6200810, Master Class November Nijmegen. Only a limited number of places will be available (15 max). Registration is on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. We will try to keep a balance between attendants with different backgrounds. Registration for one day is possible (100 Euro per day), but we prefer registration for 2 days. One week before the start of the course participants will receive course material and other relevant information through the e-­‐mail. Students can earn ½ ECTS for their required PhD or Master programme. Sponsored by the Netherlands Society for Behavioural Biology (NVG)