3Z Pharmaceuticals (private company)

3Z was founded in 2008 by Karl Karlsson, Reykjavik University, and Haraldur Thorsteinsson. It originates from RU neurolab, a Reykjavik University based neuroscience laboratory, in which a zebrafish model of sleep has been in development since 2006.

Karl Karlsson is a professor at the School of Science and Engineering at Reykjavik University. He obtained a Phd in Behavioral Neuroscience from Iowa University in 2005. In 2006 Karlsson started RU Neurolab, a laboratory focused on the neurobiology of sleep and wake. Haraldur Thorsteinsson joined RU Neurolab in 2008. He received an MSc. in Neuropsychology from the University of Maastricht in 2008.

At RU Neurolab a zebrafish model for studying sleep and wake physiology has been developed and is currently employed in high throughput screening. Other core methods employed in the lab include automated behavioral analysis, basic genetics, histology and in vivo/in vitro electrophysiology.