Neurosciences
3-7th of December 2018
Target group: PhD candidates in the first half (year 1 or 2) of their PhD trajectory. Group is limited to 14 participants
Prerequisites: Working knowledge of English
Location: GIGA
Duration of the course and workload: 5 days; ±42h for the whole course duration, including:
Contact class hours – 4h/day in the morning (8h30-10h30 & 11h-13h) = 20h
Practical courses – lab and platform visits/demonstrations – 3h/day (14h30-17h30) = 15h
Self-study –article reading (3 review articles) = 6-8h
Coordinator: Franzen Rachelle – GIGA Neurosciences
Educators
Bahri Mohamed Ali - GIGA-CRC In vivo Imaging (MB)
Bakker Julie - GIGA Neurosciences (JB)
Bastin Christine – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (CB)
Becker Guillaume – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (GB)
Bettendorff Lucien – GIGA Neurosciences (LB)
Chatelle Camille - GIGA-Consciousness (CCh)
Collette Fabienne – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (FC)
Cornil Charlotte - GIGA Neurosciences (CC)
Delacroix Laurence – GIGA Neurosciences (LD)
Depierreux Frederique - GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (FD)
Engel Dominique – GIGA Neurosciences (DE)
Garraux Gaëtan – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (GG)
Gosseries Olivia - GIGA-Consciousness (OG)
Leprince Pierre – GIGA Neurosciences (PL)
Malgrange Brigitte – GIGA Neurosciences (BM)
Nguyen Laurent – GIGA Neurosciences ((LN)
Parmentier Eric – Neurologie CHU (EP)
Plenevaux Alain - GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (AP)
Salmon Eric – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (ES)
Schmidt Christina - GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (CS)
Thibaut Aurore - GIGA-Consciousness (AT)
Vandewalle Gilles – GIGA-CRC in vivo imaging (GV)
Vanhaudenhuyse Audrey - GIGA-Consciousness (AV)
Course program
Day 1: The normal brain, from development to adult.
Location: GRANDE SALLE GHUYSEN, B34, +5
08:30 – 09:30 Neuron organization and function (Gilles Vandewalle)
- Neuroanatomy of the brain
- Functional specialization, parallel processing and hierarchical organization of the brain
09:30 – 10:30 Brain development: focus on the cortex (Laurent Nguyen)
- How to build a cerebral cortex – from stem cells to neurons
- Insights into the molecular cross-talks shaping the developing cortex
- From bench to bedside: understanding the mechanisms of brain development sheds light on the causes of brain malformations
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Glial cells (Pierre Leprince)
- Astrocytes
- Oligodendrocytes and central myelin
- Microglia
12:00 – 13:00 The Peripheral Nervous System (Brigitte Malgrange)
- Development
- Nerves and ganglia
- Schwann cells and peripheral myelin
13:00- 14:30 Lunch break
14:30 – 17:30 Workshops – Two groups of students would take turn between two workshops:
- Visit and demonstration at the GIGA imaging platform: Light-sheet microscopy, confocal microscopy and time-lapse (Brigitte Malgrange, Laurence Delacroix, Stephen Freeman)
- How to plan and conduct animal behavior analysis? Visits of facilities, illustration of behavior test using movies, practical’s about experimental design (Charlotte Cornil, Julie Bakker)
Day 2: Chemical actors in the brain.
Location: GIGA Neuroscience meeting room, B36, +1
08:30 – 09:30 How do hormones modulate brain and behavior? (Charlotte Cornil)
- What are hormones ?
- How do they act in the adult brain? (where? mechanisms of action)
- How do they permanently shape the developing brain?
9:30 – 10:30 Sexual differentiation of the human brain (Julie Bakker)
- Do hormones affect the human brain?
- Disorders of Sex Development: is the brain affected?
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Voltage-gated ion channels activated during sodium action potentials (Dominique Engel)
- Basic properties of action potentials in excitable membranes
- Macroscopic analysis of voltage-dependent Na+ and K+ currents associated to action potentials in the whole cell
- Microscopic analysis of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels from single-channel recordings
12:00 – 13:00 Structure and function of voltage-gated cation channels (Lucien Bettendorff)
- From macroscopic currents to channel proteins
- Discovery and elucidation of the primary structure of voltage-gated Na+ channels
- From the primary sequence to the three-dimensional structure of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels
- Mechanism of voltage-dependent activation and gating
- The pore-structure and selective permeability of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels
- Inactivation of voltage-gated Na+ channels
13:00- 14:30 Lunch break
14:30 – 17:30 Workshops - Preclinical and clinical electrophysiology. Two groups of students will take turn between 2 workshops:
- Pre-clinical studies - Electrophysiology unit at the GIGA Neurosciences (Dominique Engel)
- Clinical studies - Visit of the neurophysiology unit (Eric Parmentier & Olivia Gosseries)
Day 3: Cognitive Neurosciences. Location GIGA CRC in vivo imaging
08:30 – 10:30 Basal ganglia network
- Parkinson's disease and other disorders of basal ganglia networks: overview (Gaetan Garraux)
- Basal ganglia network electrophysiology: single cells recordings and local field potentials (Eric Parmentier)
- Clinical studies (Frederique Depierreux)
- Q/A session
10:30- 11:00: Break
11:00 – 13:00 Cognition, Alzheimer’s disease, animal models (Eric Salmon & Fabienne Collette)
- Changes in high-level cognition in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease (executive functions-attention-memory)
- Neurodegeneration – case of Alzheimer’s disease
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 18:00 Workshops - Clinical brain imaging. The group is divided in 2 subgroups – they rotate for the first 2 hours and then all together for the last hour (Eric Salmon, Christine Bastin, Gaetan Garraux)
MRI, PET-Scan: CRC visit
- IRM demonstration and data analyse (1h)
- Cognitive assessment demonstration and practice (1h)
- PET visit and discussion of the paper (1h)
Day 4: Sleep, Memory & Consciousness + Preclinical Imaging. Location: GIGA CRC in vivo imaging
8:30 – 10:30 Consciousness and memory (Christine Bastin)
- The forms of awareness associated with memory retrieval
- The construction of identity
- Anosognosia: Lack of self-awareness
- Self-consciousness, future and past self-projections
Sleep & Memory (molecular and cellular aspects, sleep cycles, sleep troubles, dreams (Gilles Vandewalle et Christina Schmidt)
- Sleep mechanisms: from neural circuits to brain area interaction
- Sleep regulation: interaction between the circadian clock and sleep homeostasis
- Sleep functions: from energy balance to memory consolidation
10:30- 11:00 Break
11:00 – 13:00 Clinical situations with conscious modifications: trauma, anesthesia, hypnosis
- Neural correlates of consciousness (Olivia Gosseries)
- Neuromodulation in brain injured patients (Aurore Thibaut)
- Brain computer interface (Camille Chatelle)
- Hypnosis (Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse)
13:00 – 14:30: Lunch break
14:30 – 15:00 In vivo models (Alain Plenevaux)
15:00-17:00: Workshops - Preclinical Brain Imaging (Alain Plenevaux, Guillaume Becker, Mohamed Ali Bahri)
- Lab visit
- Image manipulation on computers
- Q&A
Day 5: Stem Cells & Global Presentation of the different Neurosciences-URT - GIGA
08:30- 10:00 Stem cells (Brigitte Malgrange, Laurence Delacroix)
- Embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells
- Stem cells : a useful research tool to study neurological diseases
- Stem cells : a useful model for drug screening
- Stem cells and cell therapy in the nervous system: future perspectives
10:00- 10:30: Break
10:30 – 12:00 Analysis of a seminal paper in the field (Brigitte Malgrange & Laurence Delacroix)
12:00 – 12:30 Visit of the iPS platform
12:30 – 14:00: Lunch break
14:00 – 14:30 Global overview & presentation of the main topics developed in the 3 Neurosciences URT
14:30 – 15:00 PhD students presentations: “my thesis in 180 seconds” (2 PhD students / URT)
15:00 – 17:00 General conclusions. Q&A session. (All teachers and PIs from the 3 URT)