The field of neuroscience is built upon a deep understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern brain function. This course explores the fundamental cell types that make up the nervous system, their electrical properties, and the ways they communicate to sustain cognitive and physiological processes.
Course Details
| Language | English |
| Duration | 9 weeks |
| Effort | 3-5 hours/wk |
Description
Modern neuroscience is multidisciplinary and collaborative. We need to integrate knowledge of experimental and theoretical approaches to neuroscience, and look at the brain and brain function from different perspectives: for example, genes can partially explain differences in reading ability, but there is no single gene that makes someone a good or a poor reader. And genes can be turned on and off by external factors such as someone’s diet or a virus infection. So to understand something as complex as reading ability, we need to stitch together knowledge about the role of genes, proteins, cells, and large networks of cells.
In this course on cell biology, we will focus on the principles governing cell function such as cellular anatomy, metabolism, cell communication and electrophysiology. We will introduce you to the field of metabolomics and its applications as well as present experimental and computational approaches to study the cells of the nervous system. A special focus is placed on translational neuroscience, exploring how fundamental cellular principles relate to neurological disorders, with multiple sclerosis (MS) serving as a case study. Additionally, you will engage with the challenges and opportunities presented by big data in neuroscience, computational modeling, and integrative simulations, which are paving the way for future biomedical advancements. By the end of this course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of how the nervous system operates at a cellular level and how this knowledge can be leveraged for biomedical research and therapeutic applications.
Prerequisites
This course is for anyone who has a basic understanding of cell biology and wants to learn about brain function from a broad biological perspective.
Plan
week 1: Cells of the nervous system
week 2: Electrical properties
week 3: Cell communication
week 4: Cellular metabolism
week 5: Metabolic coupling and metabolome
week 6: Experimental approaches in electrophysiology
week 7: Cell classification
week 8: Multiple sclerosis: from bench to bedside
week 9: Modeling and simulation
Each week will include a video lecture or reading material, practice exercises, online tools to access existing data as well as a reading list if you wish to learn more on the week's subject. The week will be concluded by a graded assignment.
You will learn from top scientists, specialised in each field, and have access to research databases and learning resources such as brain atlases and brain modeling tools. We aim to show you how these new tools can help integrate the vast amounts of neuroscience data available to innovate medical technologies and therapies. And we will teach you how to use these tools for your own research and understanding.
