Program

Zebrafish science at the “fin” del mundo

Miguel L Allende, PhD
Center for Genome Regulation
Facultad de Ciencias and Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y de Conservación de la Naturaleza
Universidad de Chile

The late 90’s witnessed the explosive growth of zebrafish as a research model for development and beyond. However, most of this activity was concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere and/or in developed countries. However, many Latin Americans that trained in the main fish labs at the time, took the initiative to return to their countries of origin and start their own zebrafish labs. As PI of the pioneering fish lab in South America, I found it comparatively convenient to introduce this unknown model to the local scientific community given the low cost of setting up reasonable husbandry and its versatility which enabled setting up collaborations with numerous colleagues. As other zebrafish enthusiasts continued to arrive throughout the continent, a regional community became self aware and the LAZEN (Latin American Zebrafish Network) organization was formed in 2010 with regular meetings and training courses. The present conference and its locale are a culmination of this history.

Besides providing a brief overview of my modest role in this process, I will also present some of my more recent (and final) work using zebrafish (immunology, microbiome interactions, toxicology, evolution) as well as work on other fish species endemic to South America. Finally, on a personal note, I will suggest that an excellent use of ones’ time as a retired academic is to contribute to the education of future generations using all of the tools at our disposal including our marvelous finned friend.

Biography:

Miguel Allende has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (1994; mentor Dr. Eric S. Weinberg) and postdoctoral work at MIT (1994-1998; advisor Nacy Hopkins). He has been a Professor at the University of Chile since 2000 where he carries out teaching and research. He is author of over 120 scientific papers in the fields of animal development, genetics, cell/ molecular biology and genomics and has trained over 30 PhD students. He has led several associative projects including a role as the Director of the Center for Genome Regulation since 2010. He is an elected member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences and has been President of the Chilean Society for Cell Biology. In the area of Science Education, he has led the portable laboratory program in developmental biology and also the Chilean 1000 Genomes Initiative, taking genome sequencing to schools throughout Chile.

Carving Circuits from Connectomics - Eye Movements

Florian Engert, BS, PhD
Harvard University

We have generated the whole brain connectome of a young zebrafish and integrated it with the animal’s behavior and neural activity. This resulted in the first complete vertebrate wiring diagram at single synapse resolution. The neuronal activity of the same animal’s brain was also recorded while the animal underwent a set of behaviors; and these two data sets were superimposed allowing “firing and wiring” to be directly linked. Because sensory structures and muscle outputs are included, behaviors can be tracked from sensation to action.

Here I will discuss how we leveraged this new resource to dissect how eye movements are controlled in the context of the Opto-Kinetic-Reflex (OKR) and the Vestibular-Occular-Reflex (VOR), both critical behaviors that allow the animal to stabilize the image on its retina.

Our connectomics resource gives us unprecedented access to the complete underlying circuits in both behavior, and I will share some first insights that were gleaned from leveraging this resource.

Biography:

The general goal of my laboratory at present and in the intermediate future is the development of the larval zebrafish as a model system for the comprehensive identification and examination of neural circuits controlling various aspects of natural behaviors. To that end we have established assays for a series of visually induced behaviours and we can analyze the individual resulting motor components. Using these assays we can now monitor neuronal activity throughout the fish brain in an awake and intact preparation. An extended goal is the study of how changes or variations in the behavior are reflected in changes in the underlying neuronal activity. I am continually indebted to the graduate students and postdocs who have pioneered this work in my lab, and consistently seek to enrich both their experience in my lab and their future careers. I am especially committed to mentoring and training the young generation of researchers and I strive to promote an inclusive and supportive scientific research environment in my lab.