Current member labs of the Nordic Zebrafish Network (NZN)

Zebrafish core facility at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 

The zebrafish core facility at Karolinska Institutet provides everything from husbandry and the provision of animals to the management of complex research projects including experimental design, performing of experiments and data collection. All our service are offered to internal, external and corporate customers.   

The core facility team consists of seven staff including experts in zebrafish husbandry, research engineers and a veterinarian. All husbandry procedures are defined in SOPs and performed solely by members of the staff to ensure the highest animal welfare and reproducibility.   

For more information, please contact: zebrafish-office@km.ki.se 

DanioReadout advanced service facility at Uppsala university, Uppsala, Sweden

DanioReadout provides full-offer, customized, genome engineering and substance exposure service integrated with phenotypic evaluation in the intact zebrafish embryo. Our three main service areas are: modelling of human genetic diseases, with experience of generating nearly 200 novel gene knock-out models, substance exposure studies and human cancer modelling. 

All services areas are integrated with a unique in-house developed automated image capture pipeline and data analysis using artificial intelligence. We are open to meet facility users’ needs, by developing disease models and analysis methods specific for each project.

Contact: danioreadout@uu.se

Zebrafish facility at Experimental Biomedicine at University of Gothenburg 

In the fall 2023 a new zebrafish was open in the general animal facility at Experimental Biomedicine (https://www.gu.se/en/core-facilities/infrastructure-at-core-facilities/experimental-biomedicine-ebm). The zebrafish facility is so far overseen by two research groups and can provide research collaboration and training, but does not provide any other services to the university at this point. 

Two more zebrafish facilities that are managed by researchers are also available at University of Gothenburg, one at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, and one at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences.  

To know more about zebrafish research in Gothenburg, please contact petronella.kettunen@neuro.gu.se   

Zebrafish facility at Fredriksberg campus, Copenhagen, Denmark

The Laboratory of Experimental Fish Models (EXFIMO) lies under the section for Parasitology and Aquatic Pathology, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, at the University of Copenhagen.

The EXFIMO group primarily work with zebrafish as a model organism for diseases and immunology in other fish species or in vertebrates in general. The immune response of zebrafish is commonly analyzed in house by conducting gene expression studies (qPCR, >35 assays), histology, immunohistochemistry, behavirol analyses, and in vivo real time imaging of fluorescent immune cells and/or tagged pathogenes.

EXFIMO collaborates with other groups and has included metabolomics, microbiome analysis and transcriptome to expand competence and are able to obtain a holistic view of immune responses and health impacts of pathogens and/or hazardous substances (i.e. nanoplastic) and accompanying diseases. We are especially interested in real time imaging of immune cells and pathogens in the zebrafish. We investigate neutrophil and macrophage responses towards parasites, bacteria, virus, nanoparticles and other hazardous materials. While we have been very focused on the use of zebrafish as a model for fish diseases, we are now moving into more research related to humans. We welcome collaborations in both science fields as long as there is a focus on immunology. 

Facility and instruments

Our facility is small, with two stand alone racks with zebrafish, and room for one more. Our facility serves primarily our own research purposes, but also research in collaboration with other groups. We have two types of systems: Tecniplast and Aqua-Schwartz where wildtype (AB) and 5-6 different transgenic lines are kept as breeding stock. These include reporter lines with immune-specific markers targeting neutrophils and macrophages. Infrastructure in the facility includes a stereo microscope, a fluorescence stereo microscope (Zeiss Discovery V8) and picopumps for microinjections (SYS-PV830).

For more information, please contact: lvgj@sund.ku.dk

Zebrafish facility at Nord university, Bodø, Norway 

Our zebrafish facility operates within Nord University’s Research Station, with a team of 12 staff members, including two dedicated to the zebrafish facility. We have a broad knowledge across a variety of fish species, complemented by a technical support team dedicated to maintaining optimal conditions for diverse experimental setups. Our zebrafish team provides husbandry services and training as well as experimental planning.  

In July 2024 we are expanding and are moving into a brand new, modern facility with 10 multilinked racks, three experimental rooms and a quarantine unit.  

For more information, please contact: cesilie.r.amundsen@nord.no 

The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), Tromsø

The Department of Comparative Medicine (AKM) is an experimental animal department for traditional laboratory animals at Uit Norway's Arctic University. It is a core facility under the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Together with the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN), Helsefak has a preclinical laboratory animal department for medical imaging (core facility PETCore), which has advanced diagnostic imaging equipment.

AKM first opened in 1992 and has since then modernized its facilities. In 2017, AKM was closed due to the development of a new department and remodeling of the existing one. During this period a brand-new Zebrafish facility has been build.

Our Zebrafish department are equipped with a main housing room and a quarantine unit. The main housing room has Techniplast tank system consisting of four multilinking racks and a Tritone feeding robot. The quarantine unit has a smaller Techniplast benchtop unit. AKM has equipment for housing and breeding of Zebrafish together with both wet and dry laboratories.

In 2023 AKM has started Zebrafish-collaboration with multiple organizations both within UiT, nationally and internationally. 

• Collaboration with Advanced Microscopy Core Facility (KAM) at UiT being one of the most advanced imaging facilities in Norway. KAM focuses on super-resolution live imaging, which is highly relevant for zebrafish research.
• Users and collaborates with the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics at UiT, with researchers coming from the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology. 
• In august 2023 AKM were invited to join an interdisciplinary collaboration coordinated by the University of Oslo (UiO), with partner nodes at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), the University of Bergen (UiB), the University of Stavanger (UiS), The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Nord University (NORD) on the project called Norwegian Small Experimental Fishes for Innovation, Science and Health (NORSEFISH). Together this working group send a large grant application to the Norwegian research council for Research Infrastructure of National Importance and hope to be part of this national platform for Zebrafish research in Norway.
• In October 2023 AKM joined the Scandinavian Nordic Zebrafish Network to attribute to a strengthened international Zebrafish network. Collaboration with zebrafish facilities in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. 

The facility is still in the development and hope to become well established within the next few years. 

Our research groups dispose of equipment and facilities in addition to the core facilities. See our research groups here:  Research groups at Helsefak.

Zebrafish core facility at Tampere University 

The zebrafish core facility at Tampere University provides husbandry services, animals, project design and training. The facility serves several research groups at Tampere University as well as external academic users. The facility is specialized in immunology and infectious disease models. In addition to a large pathogen-free housing unit we have a dedicated BSL-2 zebrafish infection laboratory for housing of adult zebrafish during chronic experimental infections. Recently, an additional separate multirack housing unit was established at the facility specifically for housing of imported zebrafish lines. 

The facility staff include zebrafish experts, laboratory managers, animal caretakers and a veterinarian, altogether seven members with long experience in working with zebrafish. 

For more information about Tampere zebrafish facility please contact mataleena.parikka@tuni.fi