STATEMENT OF SUPPORT OF THE ZNP DATABASE

September 28, 2011

With the use of zebrafish models in biomedical research rapidly increasing, the field needs greater data sharing and accessibility of zebrafish data. Addressing these emerging challenges, the Zebrafish Neurophenome Project (ZNP) is a promising ongoing initiative with the goal of gathering behavioral and physiological data collected in the zebrafish in an online, open source database. This project will serve to advance the field of zebrafish phenotyping by providing a useful resource and increasing communication between researchers. The ZNP also fosters community-based research, bringing scientists together by collecting and verifying data from zebrafish labs across the world. As the ZNP promises to enhance the translational value of this model organism, we welcome and fully support this initiative.

Hitoshi Okamoto, MD, PhD, Laboratory for Developmental Gene Regulation, Neural Circuit Function Research Core, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi, Japan

Zofia Zukowska, MD, PhD, Stress Physiology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

John Godwin, PhD, Godwin Laboratory, Department of Biology and W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Barrie D. Robison, PhD, Robinson Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

Anderson Herculano, PhD, Laboratório de Neuroendocrinologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém PA, Brazil

Caio Maximino, Laboratório de Neurociências e Comportamento, Núcleo de Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém PA, Brazil

Allan Kalueff, PhD, Kalueff Lab, Tulane University Medical School, New Orleans, LA, USA

Robbert Creton, PhD, Creton Laboratory, Leduc Bioimaging Facility, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA

William Norton, PhD, Zebrafish Neurogenetics Laboratory, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Danielle Champagne, PhD, and Michael Richardson, PhD, Laboratory of New Zebrafish Screens, Department of Integrative Zoology, Institute of Biology, University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands

Rachel Blaser, PhD, USD Fishlab, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

Jason Warnick, PhD, Behavioral Neuroscience Lab, Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, AR, USA

Xiaojuan Xu, PhD, Xu Lab, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, USA

Somayeh Dodge, PhD, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Stephan Neuhauss, PhD, Neuhauss Lab, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Carla Bonan, PhD, Neurochemistry and Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil