FROM ARCHERFISH TO ZEBRAFISH – HOW TELEOST BRAINS INTERACT WITH THE WORLD
Teleost fish are a species-rich vertebrate group that has conquered diverse ecological niches on six of the seven continents with great behavioral diversity and striking cognitive abilities. Indeed, there is lots to study, from the ability of the archerfish to shoot down airborne prey with a water jet to the complex social systems of cichlids from the great East African lakes. More recently, the cyprinid zebrafish (Danio rerio) has risen to the ranks of a premier model system in biomedical research, largely owing to the optical accessibility of its larval stage. Detailed brain atlases that link structure to function are now available, as are high-resolution computational maps of kinematic motifs and an ever-expanding library of transgenic lines and mutants. While these advances have revealed basic principles of vertebrate neural circuit development and function, the mechanistic insights gleaned from zebrafish studies do not transfer easily to the questions asked by researchers interested in teleosts with different lifestyles or more sophisticated behavioral repertoires. This satellite symposium aims to foster cross-fertilization between speakers with neuroscience background and communities working on different fish species.
Tentative schedule / Estimated start/end of symposium:
The satellite will be held on the 26th of July 2026.
Sunday 8:30 am – 16:00 pm – The program will thus end ahead of time before the opening ceremony of the ICN 2026.
Program
The program will be composed of few selected keynote speakers and of registered participants (all levels, PhD students and postdocs are strongly encouraged to apply and will be preferred for presentation slots). Speakers will be selected from the submitted abstracts to give oral presentations. In addition, a talk blitz (short presentation, 3 slides) will be offered for participants that do not get longer slots.
Currently confirmed keynote speakers:
Lilach Avitan, Hebrew University, Israel
Jörg Henninger, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
Alex Keene, Texas A&M, USA
Matthew Lovett-Barron, UC San Diego, USA
Venue:
UBC Campus, Vancouver, Canada, exact location will be announced ahead of time
Organizers Contact Information:
– Yihang (Kevin) Pan, UBC Vancouver (ypan@zoology.ubc.ca)
– Jennifer Li, MPI Tübingen (jennifer.li@tuebingen.mpg.de)
– Boris Chagnaud, University of Graz (boris.chagnaud@uni-graz.at)
– Ronen Segev , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (ronensgv@bgu.ac.il)
Registration:
The registration fee covers the cost for the venue, coffee breaks and lunch on Saturday. Please register first at the ICN 2026 website to pay registration fee, and then register here: