Satellite Symposium during Neuroscience 2007: Speeding up behavioral testing of rodents and zebrafish

Satellite Symposium during Neuroscience 2007

High-throughput is of critical importance in today’s behavioral neuroscience research. Pharmacologists demand a minimal turn-around time when investigating the behavioral effects of CNS drug candidates, and behavioral geneticists face the challenge of selecting novel targets from numerous mutant lines. To identify a targeted phenotype or lead compound, rodents are commonly subjected to high-throughput (HTP) screening, followed by tests addressing specific functional domains, such as the elevated plus maze or Morris water maze. Recent breakthroughs in experiment automation and bioinformatics allow HTP behavioral screening to be carried out at an unprecedented scale. At the same time, the zebrafish is becoming an increasingly popular animal model for behavioral screening. Due to their small size and short development time, zebrafish larvae are very suitable for HTP behavioral testing. In addition, the species is known to display many behaviors of medical relevance, such as stereotyped behaviors and epileptic seizures. At this symposium, renowned speakers will present the state-of-the-art in automated HTP behavioral screening of rodents and zebrafish, with a discussion of challenges and perspectives.

Speakers:

• Jonathan Best (Summit plc, Cambridge, United Kingdom)
• Elissa Chesler (Life Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA)
• Laurence Tecott (Department of Psychiatry, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, San Francisco, USA)

Discussion leader: Robert Gerlai (Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada)