Course info

The goal of this course will be to introduce students to advanced techniques used in neuroscience. It will not provide fluency in any individual technique, but instead a better understanding of current strengths and limitations of each technique, what questions it can be used to address, and the requirements for planning and running such experiments. The intention would also be for students to learn who the “local experts” are amongst their colleagues and hopefully encourage greater collaboration.

Each session would be hosted by a postdoc from one of the participating neuroscience groups, who would introduce students to a method they use routinely in their lab. The format would be that the postdoc sends a paper in advance that highlights their method so students would have an understanding of the basic approach. The lecture would involve a roundtable (video conference) discussion, or a short presentation covering the basics of the technique, what questions it can be used to address by using examples in the literature, and/or future avenues for the development of this technique. This would be followed by a lab portion that involves shadowing the postdoc as they demonstrate the protocol (or the key steps if the full protocol is not possible due to time).
Proposed techniques for the course:
1) Robert – Clonal analysis in the cortex using MADM
2) Giselle – Patch-sequencing using MADM
3) Melissa – Culturing of cerebral organoids
4) Peter – Freeze fracture replica preparation and labeling followed by practical observation of samples.
5) Anton – Calcium imaging in the superior colliculus
6) Carolina – Optogenetics stimulation of live brain tissue followed by high pressure freezing
7) Ben – Laser-scanning photostimulation of channelrhodopsin-positive axons to map the the subcellular distribution of synaptic inputs to neurons, for multiple sources of long-range excitatory input
8) Margaret – To be determined

Target group: Second or third year PhD students.

Prerequisites: Basic understanding of neuroscience.

Evaluation: Attendance and participation in discussions. Students will be expected to read an article provided by the lecturer before each lesson. This will be discussed and then demonstrated in the lab portion of the lesson.

Teaching format: Video conference discussions followed by lab demonstrations (possibly entirely over zoom depending on regulations at the time).

ECTS: None Year: 2020

Teacher(s):
Robert Beattie Carolina Borges Merjane Giselle Cheung Peter Koppensteiner Margaret Maes Melissa Stouffer Anton Sumser Benjamin Suter Mojtaba Tavakoli

Teaching assistant(s):

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