Short Courses
The below Short Courses were held at SfN's 39th Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, in October 2009. You may download the publications in PDF format. Also view 2008 publications.
View summary and download PDF:
- Short Course I - Epigenetic Control and Neuronal Function
- Short Course II - Rhythms of the Neocortex: Where Do They Come From and What Are They Good For?
- Short Course III - The Change We Need: New Frontiers in Live-Cell Imaging
Short Course I
Epigenetic Control and Neuronal Function
Paolo Sassone-Corsi, PhD, Editor, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine
Contributors: Shelley L. Berger, PhD, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania; Stephen J. Haggarty, PhD, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Center for Human Genetic Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachussetts Institute of Technology; Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu, PhD, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley; Antonella Riccio, MD, PhD, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London; Moshe Szyf, PhD, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University; Marcelo A. Wood, PhD, Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine.
Neurons are cells submitted to an exceptional variety of stimuli that are able to convert them into high-order functions, such as storing memories, controlling behavior, and governing consciousness. These unique properties are based on highly plastic processes, which are intimately dependent on the complex molecular machinery that controls gene expression. Evidence is accumulating that neuronal functions have more than a solely genetic basis. Epigenetic control, which largely involves events of chromatin remodeling, appears to govern some of the more distinctive features of neuronal responses, guiding, for example, dynamic plasticity and long-lasting cellular memory.
Understanding the molecular pathways of chromatin transitions in neurons is therefore critical because it will provide fundamental insights into how plasticity is achieved. What are the epigenetic pathways leading to specific responses in neurons? The presence of an "epigenetic indexing code" has been postulated, but how this may operate still needs to be elucidated.
The purpose of this course is to provide neuroscientists with the conceptual basis of epigenetics and chromatin remodeling and to discuss how central findings accumulating at an exponential rate in the field are changing our perspective of brain function.
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Short Course II
Rhythms of the Neocortex: Where Do They Come From and What Are They Good For?
Nancy Kopell, PhD, Editor, Center for Biodynamics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University
Contributors: Edward S. Boyden, PhD, MIT Media Laboratory, Departments of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos, PhD, Committee on Computational Neuroscience, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago; Charles E. Schroeder, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Wolf Singer, MD, PhD, Department of Neurophysiology, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, and Ernst Strüngmann Institute; Catherine Tallon-Baudry, PhD, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Unité Mixte de Recherche 7225, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière; Roger D. Traub, MD, Department of Physical Sciences, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center; Miles A. Whittington, PhD, Institute of Neuroscience, The Medical School, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
During the last 20 years, the study of neural rhythms has undergone a major renaissance: We now have far more information about how rhythms are produced, how they are associated with function, and how pathologies in rhythms relate to neurological diseases. However, the central question of what roles these rhythms play in sensory processing, cognitive activity and motor planning remains to be answered definitively. This short course summarizes the state of the art in the study of neocortical rhythms, touching on insights from in vitro and modeling work, and connecting the in vivo rhythms to the functional circumstances in which they are recorded. The work described comes from a variety of in vitro and in vivo technology, and one talk will address new techniques for investigating and engineering rhythms. In addition, there will be several breakout group discussions with the speakers, as well as an extra breakout session used for a tutorial on a variety of analysis methods for rhythmic data.
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Short Course III
The Change We Need: New Frontiers in Live-Cell Imaging
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Scott M. Thompson, PhD and Thomas A. Blanpied, PhD, Editors, School of Medicine, Department of Physiology, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Contributors: Marcel P. Bruchez, PhD, Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University; Daniel Choquet, PhD, Physiology Cellulaire de la Synapse, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5091, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Bordeaux 2; Timothy E. Holy, PhD, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine; Hari Shroff, PhD, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health; Katrin I. Willig, PhD, Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry; Ryohei Yasuda, PhD, Departments of Neurobiology, Cell Biology, and Physics, Duke University; Karen Zito, PhD, Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis.
This workshop will examine advanced microscopy approaches that push the limits of what is currently possible in imaging of living cells and tissues. It will demonstrate techniques that have only recently become available to neuroscientists or that will become available in the coming few years. This will not be a simplistic workshop about putting in place a system that is commercially available today, nor is it designed to focus on methods that are expected to remain out of reach of biologists for a considerable period. We want to get you informed and excited about what is right around the corner. For each of the experimental approaches, speakers will describe the theoretical and physical basis for the technique, the technology required, and the major technical and biological considerations for when and how to apply it.
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