First meeting of the latin american zebrafish network

A little over the last 10 years, zebrafish research in Latin America has been silently maturing, with a community that has grown both through local initiatives as well as because of returning expatriates who were trained in U.S. and European zebrafish laboratories. Now numbering over 20 groups in four countries, principal investigators from these laboratories met in December 2010 to inaugurate the Latin American Zebrafish Network (LAZEN). The meeting got underway with scientific presentations by the lead investigators of each represented laboratory, as a way to gauge the breadth of zebrafish research in the region. Developmental biology of sensory systems, organogenesis, regeneration, and metabolism were well-represented topics, and there were also groups initiating work on applied uses of the zebrafish model (molecule screens, environmental monitoring, and disease models). However, the principal aim of the gathering was to diagnose the difficulties faced by investigators in the different countries and to search for common strategies to resolve them. As an outcome of the encounter, a coordinating committee was elected and future activities were planned, including periodic meetings similar to those held in other regions of the world.