The main objective of the school is to provide students with theoretical knowledge of the structure and basic function of the nervous system, as well as to introduce them to the main techniques of basic neuroscience research through the approach of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, the basis neurobiology of sleep and sleep disorders, CNS neuropsychopharmacology and drug discovery, and computational neuroscience.
About the School
The IBRO-LARC Peruvian School for Research in Neuroscience 2022 will be a 6-day theoretical and practical school held at the Andean University of Cusco, Peru. This school will receive 30 undergraduate and graduate students from the countries of the Latin American region. The school will be focused on providing the students with theoretical knowledge on the basic structure and function of the nervous system and specific advanced topics in recent advances in neuroscience research, cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, the neurobiological basis of sleep and sleep disorders, neuropsychopharmacology and CNS drug discovery, and methods of computational neuroscience.
In addition to theoretical knowledge, students will be introduced to basic techniques in systems neuroscience through technical talk sessions and hands-on laboratory activities, which will be focused on gene and protein expression, immunohistochemistry, in vivo electrophysiology recording, stereotaxic surgeries, rodent behavioral paradigms, and computational modeling methods to study developing neural circuits. The school will also include group discussion and oral presentations of main results obtained during the laboratory activities.
The School will include 8 theoretical lectures, 10 technical talks and 5 laboratory hands-on sessions and 5 group discussions by both international and local faculties. All students will attend theoretical lectures and technical talk sessions. Hands-on laboratory activities will be divided into 5 groups, and students must choose which one to participate in at the time of application. The practical laboratory activities will be in molecular biology techniques (qPCR-RT and Western Blot), immunohistochemistry (perfusion, cryostat sectioning, immunohistochemical staining), EEG electrophysiology (building and implanting recording electrodes, pilocarpine epilepsy model, EEG recording in anesthetized animal and analysis of EGG recordings), computational neuroscience models (programing language, building artificial neurons and circuits, synaptic plasticity models, operant-respondent distinction in computational neuroscience) and rodent behavioral paradigms (measuring anxiety and depressive-like behaviors in rodents, measuring spatial learning and memory in rats, measuring maternal behavior and infant olfactory preference in rats and analysis of behavioral data).
Language use in lectures, technical talks, laboratory activities, group discussions, and oral presentations will be Spanish.
Who should apply to this School?
Advanced undergraduate and graduate students from Latin America specializing in basic and clinical neuroscience disciplines are welcome to apply to the course. Also, students from mathematics and physics areas interested in computational modeling are encouraged to apply to the school.
What costs will be covered for selected participants?
All participating international and national students will receive round-trip airfare from a major international airport in their country or department to Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cuzco and a reasonable stipend to cover accommodation and food expenses during their stay.
Cosponsors
Instituto Científico-Universidad Andina del Cusco, GRUPO A&C, H.W KESSEL
Application dates:
May 24, 2022 – Jun 24, 2022 (5:00 p.m. CET)
School dates and location:
October 24-29, 2022
Andean University of Cusco, Peru
Apply HERE
For any queries, please contact Prof. Luis Pacheco at luis.pacheco@sonep.org