Behavioral and Neural Genetics of Zebrafish

Dr. Gerlai received his Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the highest distinction in 1989. He has held numerous academic positions in Europe and North America (Eötvös University of Budapest, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute of Toronto, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Hawaii Honolulu), and he also held leadership positions in the US biotechnology and biopharmaceutical research industry working as a senior research scientist and Vice President (Genentech Inc. South San Francisco, Eli Lilly & Co. Indianapolis, Saegis Pharma Half Moon Bay) before joining the University of Toronto in 2004, where he is currently full professor at the Department of Psychology. Dr. Gerlai has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals and books with a cumulative citation number over 12000 and an H index of 55. He is member of editorial boards of PLOS ONE, Learning and Behavior, Genes Brain and Behaviour, Neurotoxicology and Teratology. He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Genetics of Complex Traits, Review Editor for Frontiers in Neuroscience and Section Editor for BioMedCentral Neuroscience. He has edited several special issues of scientific journals and served as co-editor of handbooks on molecular genetic approaches in behavioural neuroscience. He is founding member of the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society, IBANGS. He was the president of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) in 2007 and 2008, and he has been elected Fellow of this Society since 2005. He received the Distinguished Scientist Award from IBANGS in 2013 and the John Wiley Distinguished Speaker Award from the International Society of Developmental Psychobiology in 2014. In 2015, he was awarded the University of Toronto Mississauga Excellence in Research Award. Dr. Gerlai’s research focusses on the biological and genetic mechanisms of behaviour. For the past fourteen years his research at University of Toronto has been using zebrafish employing behavioural phenotyping, psychopharmacological and genetic methods to study mechanisms of alcohol abuse, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and of learning and memory. His laboratory has been funded by NIH, NSERC and Brain Canada.

Section I. Introduction to Zebrafish: Natural Habitat, Ethology, and Appropriate Maintenance Conditions 1. The biotic and abiotic environment of zebrafish 2. Maintenance and breeding of zebrafish, with some ethological and ecological considerations in mind

Section II. The Behavior of the Fry 3. The larval visual system and behavioral responses to visual stimuli 4. Visual escape in larval zebrafish: Stimuli, circuits, and behavior 5. Functional review of hearing in zebrafish 6. The development of social behavior 7. Classical and operant conditioning in larval zebrafish

Section III. The Behavior of the Adult 8. Motor patterns and swim path characteristics: the ethogram of zebrafish 9. Behavioral criteria and techniques to define sleep in zebrafish 10. Fear responses and antipredatory behavior of zebrafish: A translational perspective 11. Social behavior and its psychopharmacological and genetic analysis in zebrafish 12. Associative and non-associative learning in adult zebrafish 13. Relational learning in zebrafish: A model of declarative memory in humans?

Section IV. Genetic Methods for Zebrafish 14. Molecular genetic approaches to dissect complex behaviors in zebrafish 15. Behavioural research in zebrafish (Danio rerio): strain as source of variation 16. Designer mutants for behavioral genetics 17. Optogenetics 18. The CRISPR/Cas system in zebrafish 19. PhOTO Zebrafish and primed conversion: Advancing the mechanistic view of development and disease

Section V. Disease Models and Behavior Genetic Applications 20. Acute and chronic alcohol effects in zebrafish 21. Behavioural genetics of embryonic ethanol exposure in zebrafish: A model for FASD 22. Life, death, and regeneration of zebrafish dopaminergic neurons 23. Parkinson's Disease 24. Seizures and epilepsy 25. Aging, circadian clock and neurogenesis: the zebrafish approach 26. Modeling autism spectrum disorders in zebrafish 27. Studying aggression in zebrafish 28. Methylmercury induces transgenerationally transmissible epigenetic changes influencing zebrafish behavior

Section VI. Big Data and Bioinformatics 29. The design of behavioral screening in zebrafish 30. Software tools for behavioral phenotyping of zebrafish across the life span 31. The Zebrafish Genome Sequencing Project: Bioinformatics resources 32. Registered, standardized, and interactive: a review of online resources for zebrafish neuroanatomy