Neuroscience Boot Camp for Graduate Recruits Barry Connors

Neuroscience Boot Camp for Graduate Recruits • Barry Connors (Brown University) • Virginia Seybold (University of Minnesota) • Q & A, discussion

What is boot camp? from Wikipedia: • Bootcamp: a 1980 s band • Boot Camp: software for installing an alternate operating system on an Intel-based Macintosh computer • Boot Camp: a film, also known as Straight Edge • Boot Camp: a 2001 reality television show boot camp, n. 1. A training camp for military recruits. 2. A correctional facility that uses the training techniques applied to military recruits to teach usually youthful offenders socially acceptable patterns of behavior. 3. A training camp for new neuroscience graduate students.

% books “neuroscience” “boot camp” Year

There are many types of “boot camps” in biomedical areas: • Pre-college biology (BIOS, LSU) • Grad programs • Quantitative Biology Boot Camp (Brandeis) • Grad science TA boot camp (Duke) • Many medical specialties for residents • Postdoc boot camp for senior grad students in underrepresented minorities (UCSF) • Faculty funding boot camp • Even medical librarians • “Neuroscience Boot Camp” for faculty, lawyers, ethicists: 8 days, $4500 (U Penn Center for Neuroscience & Society)

What is neuroscience boot camp? “This course, based on summer courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, is a series of intensive lab exercises that runs for two weeks from morning until midnight. ” UCSD Neuroscience Graduate Program web site

Why would you want a neuroscience boot camp for your graduate program? In no particular order: • To enhance student recruitment • For heuristic and academic value • Student bonding (student-faculty bonding? ) • To teach basic and advanced methods • To instill a laboratory work ethic • To introduce students to program faculty “The subliminal goal is to make it clear from day 1 that graduate school is about working in labs, not taking courses. ” Gary Westbrook (OHSU) “Our entering class (~10 students) ‘bonds’ through this experience, with each other and the second-year students who run the course. ” Carol Mason (Columbia)

The phenotype of neuroscience boot camps When? Just preceding or at the start of fall term of the first year. How long? From 1 -3 days up to 2 weeks. Who runs it? Ranges widely from 2 -3 dedicated faculty, to broad faculty participation, to something mostly organized by upper-level graduate students. Is course credit given? Sometimes but not usually; some boot camps serve as the introduction to a regular semester-long course. Style? Most are methods-oriented, ranging from heavily hands-on to strongly lecture-based with some demos; hands-on tend to be more narrowly focused (often electrophysiology and imaging), lecturebased are more broad.

2011 UCSD Neuro Boot Camp: Schedule Daily: 8: 45 AM: 9: 00 AM: Noon: 1: 00 PM: ~6: 00 PM: Evening: Tues, Sept 6: 9: 00 AM: 9: 30 AM: 11: 30 AM: Noon: 1: 00 PM: Continental breakfast and coffee (2130 Bonner Hall) Lectures (2130 Bonner) Lunch: provided, on the lawn near Stonehenge Lab lectures and exercises (1310 York Hall) Dinner—on your own Lab exercises Bill Kristan: Welcome, overview of the course. Kathy French: Biophysics overview: resting and action potentials. Dennis Hickey: Lab safety Lunch: no organized activities. Bill Kristan: Using Power. Lab to record data and stimulate neurons. Lab: Analyzing RC circuits. Eve: Krista Todd: Intracellular recording techniques. Lab: ionic basis of the resting potential of frog muscle fibers. Wed, Sept 7: 9: 00 AM: Kathy French: Biophysics overview: synaptic transmission. 11: 15 AM: Krista Todd: Discuss results from measuring resting potentials. Noon: Lunch: chalk talks by boot campers. 1: 00 PM: Bill Kristan: Extracellular recording from neurons, axons. Lab: extracellular recording of population action potentials in frog sciatic nerve. Eve: Bill Kristan: Intracellular recording from leech neurons. Lab: intracellular recording of action potentials in leech neurons (Rz, AP, and P cells). Thurs, Sept 8: 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures. 11: 30 AM: Bill Kristan: discuss results from Wednesday’s experiments. Noon: Lunch: chalk talks by boot campers. *****TURN IN SPECIAL PROJECT TOPIC PREFERENCES***** 1: 00 PM: Kathy French: Identifying leech neurons Afternoon, eve: Lab: identifying leech neurons (T, P, N, AE, AP, Ly, Rz, S) using intracellular recording Fri, Sept 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures. 11: 30 AM: Kathy French: discuss results from Thursday’s experiments. Noon: Lunch: chalk talks by boot campers. 1: 00 PM: Bill Kristan: Characterizing electrical and chemical synaptic connections. Afternoon: Lab: electrical synaptic connections among leech neurons. 5: 00: Dinner at Porter’s Pub with the Biology Department Boot Campers. Evening: Lab: chemical synaptic connections among leech neurons. Sat, Sept. 10: 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures. 11: 30 AM: Bill Kristan: discuss results from Friday’s experiments. Noon: Lunch: chalk talks by boot campers. 1: 00 PM: Kathy French, Krista Todd: Filling neurons with fluorescent dyes Afternoon, eve: Lab: fill neurons with dyes, image the filled cells.

2011 UCSD Neuro Boot Camp: Schedule Sun, Sept 11: *********** Day off ***********

2011 UCSD Neuro Boot Camp: Schedule Mon, Sept 12: 9: 30 AM: Noon: 1: 15 PM: Eve: Tues, Sept 13: 9: 30 AM: Noon: 1: 30 -3 PM: 3: 30 -5 PM: Faculty research lectures. Lunch Paul Slesinger: Molecular biology (3316 York Hall) Special projects. Faculty research lectures. Lunch: Sarah Parylak and the Outreach crew. Aimee Pierce: Clinical presentation of Parkinson’s Disease “ “ Alzheimer’s Disease/posterior cortical atrophy (Large Conference Room, CNCB) Special projects. Eve: Wed, Sept 14: 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures. Noon: Lunch: Dan Knudsen, Krista Perks, Laura De. Nardo, Emilie Schwager: Peer Advisors 1: 15 PM: Victoria Ribrough: Mouse and human behavioral experiments (at the VA Hospital) Eve: Special projects Thurs, Sept 15: 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures Noon: Lunch 1: 15 -2: 45 Mark Ellisman: tour of National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) 3: 00 -4: 45 Tom Liu: tour of Keck Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Eve: Special projects. Fri, Sept 16: 9: 30 AM: Faculty research lectures. Noon: Lunch 1: 00 PM: Work on special project presentations. 4: 00 PM: Joseph Gleeson (3500 Pacific Hall): "The Neurobiology of Human Developmental Disorders: A Genetic Approach". 5: 30 PM: TGIF with Biology Boot Campers Eve: Finish special project presentations. Sat, Sept 17: 10: 00 AM: Special project talks (2130 Bonner) Noon: Lunch PM: Complete the talks, then party, party!!!

2011 UCSD Neuro Boot Camp: Schedule Special Projects (Organizers) 1. Behavioral rodent models: Sensorimotor gating and Learning/Memory (Vickie Risbrough, Jan Schilling, Adam Halberstadt) 2. Computational (Paxon Frady, Jeff Bush, Tommy Sprague) 3. Confocal imaging of electrical activity in the zebrafish CNS (Nick Spitzer) 4. f. MRI for computerized training of approach/avoidance and its effects on cue reactivity (Martin Paulus, Alan Simmons, Greg Fonzo, Colm Connelly, Charlie Taylor, Scott Mackey, Jennifer Stewart, Tali Manber Ball, April May, Robyn Migliorini, Akanksha Shukla, Stephan Jordan, Sonja Eberson, Carolyn Eidt) 5. Molecular biology (Paul Slesinger, Bartosz Balana, Sandeepa Dey) 6. Single unit recording from awake, behaving rats (Jill & Stefan Leutgeb, Emily Mankin)

What are the biggest challenges of running a boot camp? • • Recruiting instructors Finding space Gathering equipment, reagents, animals, tissue Financing it “I did not mention it but we also house and feed the students for two weeks since the boot camp starts two weeks before the official Fall quarter begins. ” Shaul Hestrin (Stanford) From the Stanford Intensive Neuroscience (S. I. N. ) syllabus: The instructors of SIN 2010 acknowledge the contributions from the following vendors for major equipment loans in support of teaching: � Sutter Instruments � Olympus America, Inc. � Carl Zeiss Micro. Imaging, Inc. � Cooke Corporation � Molecular Devices

Is Neuroscience Boot Camp worth the effort? unpublished data: “We don't do any assessment. The students generally very much like Bootcamp…” Carol Mason (Columbia) “…it has provided a nice experience for the new students to get to know each other before classes start. ” Gary Westbrook (OHSU) “Yes, it's a lot of work, but it is the most satisfying teaching I have ever done. ” Bill Kristan (UCSD) “The students love it. ” Shaul Hestrin (Stanford)

So we got the labcoats. Now we need a good excuse to wear them. Neuro ^