IZFS Webinars
About | Upcoming Webinars | Previous Webinars | Sponsors | Sponsorship Opportunities
In April 2020, the International Zebrafish Society (IZFS) launched the IZFS Webinar Series. The series includes a variety of research and professional development topics. The content of the webinars is designed for researchers from every career level and to share the latest scientific findings, methods, technologies, and products to facilitate research. The format provides direct access to experts in the field in an interactive online setting.
Webinar registration is free to all IZFS members. Non-members may participate in each webinar for a fee of $25.00 USD. The Franklin-Prasher-Kimmel Webinar series is free to the entire zebrafish community. To register for webinars, please click here. If you have never been a member and would like to join, please click here. If your membership has lapsed and you would like to renew to participate in the webinars, please click here.
Upcoming Webinars
How Specialized Cell Types Arise in Evolution and Development: Insights from Brain and Gut
Featuring Megan Y. Dennis, PhD and Jeffrey Farrell, PhD
July 16, 2026
10:00am - 11:00am EDT | Find your time here
Human brain innovation via gene duplication revealed using zebrafish
Megan Y. Dennis, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
University of California Davis (UC Davis)
School of Medicine
Bluesky: @mydennis.bsky.social
The recent completion of a telomere-to-telomere human genome assembly uncovered thousands of duplicated genes that may underlie uniquely human phenotypic traits, including the cognitive and neurological features that distinguish our species. I will present higher-throughput zebrafish modeling of ten top candidate genes, revealing new functional insights into human brain evolution and the genomic innovations that may have shaped it.
Development and function of intestinal best4+ cells
Jeffrey Farrell
Stadtman Investigator (Assistant Professor)
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Bluesky: @JeffreyAFarrell
Single-cell transcriptomic profiling has uncovered several previously missed cell types and cell states, including intestinal epithelial best4+ cells. best4+ cells are conserved across vertebrates, but their development and function remains unclear. However, best4+ cells are altered in inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer, suggesting that stimulation of their homeostatic replenishment may have therapeutic potential. Since mice lack best4+ cells, but zebrafish best4+ cells are highly transcriptionally similar to those in humans, we established zebrafish as a tractable in vivo model to observe, manipulate, and remove best4+ cells in an organismal context. I will present our results determining the developmental regulation of best4+ cells using both computational developmental trajectory and experimental approaches, establishing the progenitors that give rise to them, the developmental signals that specify them, and key transcription factors that confer their identity and spatial heterogeneity. I will also discuss our functional characterization of these cells: in vivo live imaging and removal of best4+ cells showed that best4+ cells sense luminal pH changes and extend dynamic luminal and stromal projections, but are not required to restore global luminal pH after challenge. Finally, I will also discuss our ongoing efforts to more fully determine the gene regulatory network of these cells using single-cell multiomic approaches.
Previous Webinars
For a complete list of our archived webinars, please click here
Current members may access the recorded webinars by logging into the "members-only" portal
Webinar Sponsorship Opportunities
This educational format provides a unique opportunity for potential sponsors to connect with the most influential group of fish researchers in a virtual setting. The content of the webinars is designed to attract researchers from every career level and to share the latest scientific findings, methods, technologies and products to facilitate their research work. With this virtual format, sponsors not only have exposure to attendees accessing the live webinars, but additional exposure and continued visibility as webinars are archived on the IZFS website and available to members to view on demand.
Explore the Sponsorship Opportunities Here
Please reach out to Alyssa Gluth at agluth@izfs.org with any questions.