Biomineralisation in Fish Bones and Teeth: from Microscopy to 
Design of Materials.
Organizers: Anne Kemp and Gilles Cuny 
(University of Queensland and Geological Museum, University 
of Copenhagen).

We plan to run a symposium on fish biomineralisation 
emphasising new analytical techniques like high resolution tem 
and molecular biology, placing the new work in the context of 
results from more conventional analyses such as light and 
electron microscopy and biochemistry (see below). This 
symposium is part of a major project to analyse fish 
biomineralisation in more detail, and explore commercial 
applications of the structures and processes discovered. 

If you are interested in participating in a symposium on 
this topic, either as part of the Fisheries Biology Congress in 
Newfoundland in 2006, or as a separate symposium to be held 
in Europe in 2008, please indicate your interest by responding to 
this e-mail.

Expressions of interest in the 2006 congress are needed 
by January 31st 2005. Please answer to Gilles at 
gilles@savik.geomus.ku.dk and/or to Anne at 
a.kemp@mailbox.uq.edu.au 

Please circulate this e-mail to anyone who might be 
interested. We particularly welcome students and postdocs 
contributions.

The symposium will discuss the ultrastructure, genetics, 
development, and processes of biomineralisation of the hard 
tissues of fish, including bone, enamel, enameloid, dentine, 
calcified cartilage and scale tissues. That the fine structure of fish 
teeth shows an enormous diversity has been known since the 
early studies of Owen in the nineteenth century, but little of this 
diversity has been studied with modern techniques of 
microscopy. Equally, development displays considerable 
variability, with enamel being formed by endodermally derived 
tissues in several fish groups, and enameloid from endoderm and 
mesoderm. The processes involved in biomineralisation are 
known in part in some mammals, but little understood in fish. 
Studies on immunodetection of the proteins involved in the 
mineralization processes of hard tissues in fish are not very 
widely used, and the genes coding for these proteins not always 
identified. Specific adaptations of the ultrastructure of fish 
dentitions, in relation to stress induced during use of the teeth, 
have implications for biomaterials research and for the design of 
more effective machinery for industrial processes. Improved 
understanding of all of these aspects of fish hard tissues has 
phylogenetic implications, especially for the relationships among 
problematic groups of fishes, or between fish and other 
vertebrates. This symposium will bring ideas from different fields, 
in biochemistry, genetics, developmental biology, biomaterials 
and microscopy, together and assist in the development of 
productive new ideas.

Dr. Gilles Cuny
Geological Museum, University of Copenhagen
Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Tel: (45) 3532 2364, Fax: (45) 3532 2325
Want to visit our collection? Have a look at
http://www.zmuc.dk/synthesys/