The summer training camp is an intensive collaborative lab course held once every year. This year this course will take in about 20 students, mostly incoming graduate students from participating PIs’ lab, but also undergraduates. The course will run from August 1st to 31th, 5 days a week, and >8 hr a day. Final presentation will be held on September 7. By the end of the course, the students not only will know their fellow students very well, they also know the available neurobiology techniques by heart.
In the first week, basic neuroscience techniques, such as perfusion, gross anatomy of the brain, stereotaxic surgery techniques, frozen section, Nissl stain, immunohistochemistry of the brain sections, neuronal culture, and behavior methods will be taught. After this preparatory week, the following weeks will be divided into rotations, in 3-day blocks. There will be 5 labs in 5 stations. In each station, one or two PI will be in charge. In these
stations, there will be labs for calcium and voltage imaging of the culture cell, single cell PCR, cellular electrophysiology and field potential recording in the brain slice, tract-tracing method, and extracellular multiple single unit recording in free moving rats. Hand-on experiments will be emphasized throughout.