Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is small tropical freshwater fish and common species in home aquariums. The rapid external development, transparency of the embryos, high fecundity and availability of large number of mutant and transgenic strains, have rendered zebrafish as a popular model in scientific research. Traditionally zebrafish have been utilized in developmental biology, but recently zebrafish embryos have been applied to solve problems in various biomedical areas such as cardiovascular research, cancer biology, neuroscience, toxicology and pharmacology. Zebrafish embryos offer an ethical, practical and low-cost model for scientific studies.

Zebrafish Core provides services such as assistance, expert consulting, training and necessary equipment to perform experiments utilizing zebrafish models. Consulting covers eg. finding and acquiring appropriate fish lines, help in licence applications and experimental design. Established protocols for various zebrafish methods, such as embryo culture, transgenesis, targeted mutagenesis and sample preparation, are available through the Zebrafish Core. Zebrafish Core also arranges training in the scientific use of zebrafish models.