Paulo Gavaia obtained his PhD in Biological Sciences in in the group of Leonor Cancela at the University of Algarve. During this time, he acquired expertize in the use of marine fish and zebrafish in the fields of skeletal biology using cellular and molecular biology as tolls to identify molecular regulators of calcification with biomedical applications. He joined the CCMAR as a staff Researcher of the BioSkel group in 2007 and established a zebrafish facility to give support to the I&D activities centered in Comparative, Adaptive and Functional Skeletal Biology and in biomedical and pharmaceutic applications. The BioSkel group has produced several zebrafish lines for the study of genes and proteins of interest for skeletal development and for the study of diseases associated to bone and cartilage. In his current role, Paulo organizes and develops training courses for the use of zebrafish in research. 

Maria Leonor Cancela obtained her PhD at the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, in Paris, France. She developed her project in the area of Biomedical Sciences in the rheumatology clinic and INSERM Unit 18, Hôpital Lariboisière, on phosphocalcic metabolism during prenatal and postnatal mammalian development. She continued her training at the University of California, first at UC Riverside, working on the molecular and cellular aspects of vitamin D metabolism and then at UC San Diego on vitamin D and vitamin K dependent proteins and mineralization in mammals. Upon her arrival at University of Algarve she has focused on the molecular and cellular determinants of tissue mineralization in health and disease and is using fish as model organism for different human skeletal diseases. She will contribute to the teaching of this zebrafish training course by presenting an overview of the zebrafish models, both mutants and transgenics, currently available for different human diseases and in particular those affecting the skeleton.

Vincent Laizé obtained his PhD in 1998 in Molecular Biophysics at the University Pierre & Marie Curie (Paris). He joined the BIOSKEL lab at the CCMAR in 2000 to study the molecular determinants of tissue mineralization using fish systems. He has various years of experience working with in vitro cell systems capable of mineralization to study mechanisms underlying osteogenic and osteotoxic activities. He will present during the zebrafish training course the methodology used to established primary cell cultures from zebrafish tissues toward biomedical applications.