This course takes you on a journey into the exploration of how the brain shapes and enables our social and affective behaviors. We will examine key questions, such as how we learn from each other, when and in what ways social norms influence us, and how our communication and social decision-making unfold. 

This course provides students with in-depth knowledge in the field of digital health from an entrepreneurship perspective. Domains of digital health, needs-based innovation including prototyping, usability and testing as well as data management, intellectual property, reimbursement, business models, ethics and future trends will be discussed and analyzed.

Topics covered include:

• Basics of monolayer glioblastoma cell culturing
• Generation and culturing of human glioblastoma organoids
• Immunochemistry, Western Blot, DNA/RNA isolation
• Flow cytometry analysis of cell death and cell viability assays
• Live-cell imaging and morphology analysis
• Data analysis including statistics using ImageJ, FlowJo, GraphPad PRISM
• Visualization of results using Microsoft Excel/Powerpoint or Adobe illustrator

Topics coverd include:

• Vascular Biology and organotypic properties
• How to investigate blood vessels in the CNS
• Isolation of blood vessels and endothelial cells from the mouse CNS
• Endothelial cell tube formation assay
• Co-culture of endothelial cells and pericytes in 3D
• In vitro blood brain barrier assay

Topics covered include:

• Coding: theory, practical training, coding styles, unit testing
• Collaborative software development workflows
• Data analytics workflows
• (Generalised) linear mixed effects models
• Bayesian statistics
• Data visualisation
• Workflow automation
• Meta-science

Topics covered include:

• Deep brain imaging using single- and two-photon imaging techniques
• Miniature microscope recordings in freely moving animals
• Combined all-optical imaging and optogenetic tools
• Large scale neural population analysis using data science and machine learning techniques
• Behavioural phenotyping using markerless pose estimation
• Scientific programming using Python

Topics covered include:

• Cellular resolution fluorescent in vivo imaging (mouse model)
• Histological analysis of post-encephalitic brain tissue changes
• Field electrophysiology (in vivo, in vitro)
• Patch-clamp cellular recordings (in vitro)
• Targeted light-based circuit interference, light-activated antiepileptic drugs

This module is dedicated to understanding and investigating how small molecular modulators can be used to specifically target prominent metabolic pathways using the mouse as an experimental animal model. Attendees will be introduced to murine animal handling, murine primary adipocyte isolation and in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro pharmacological experimentation with the model system. The practical work will be supported by institute seminars covering, among other, signal transduction metabolism and pharmacology.

The lab-based practical part of the course will cover methods used to tackle questions in the research area outlined above, such as cell culture, microscopy, tissue dissociation and processing of tissue samples, MACS and FACS-based cell analysis and separation, cell transfection, cell genome engineering, transgene expression, cellular
assays, protein and gene expression analyses etc. In addition to the practical part, students will attend lectures and seminars.

Topics covered include:

• Basic protein-biochemical methods (protein-protein interactions, Western Blotting
• Processing of human samples for protein detection
• Basic cloning techniques and CRISPR
• Cell culture work with primary cells and cell lines

Topics covered include:

• Diversity of neuronal cell types and approaches to cell type classification
• Experimental design to dissect the functional contribution of diverse neuronal cell types to behaviour
• Stereotaxic surgeries and cell type-specific targeting with viral vectors in transgenic mice
• Deep-brain imaging at the single-cell level using miniature microscopes in freely-moving mice and 2-photon recordings in head-fixed animals
• All-optical interrogation of neural circuits with combined imaging and optogenetic approaches
• Introduction to analysis of deep-brain imaging data

Topics include:

• Free swimming and restrained behavioural recording
• Multiphoton neuronal population imaging
• 3D electron microscopy preparation and collection
• Time series analysis and machine learning-based image segmentation

Topics covered include:

• Handling of adult and larvae zebrafish. Manual Morpholino® (MO) injections into fertilized fish eggs
• Fluorescent in vivo microscopy of transgenic larvae zebrafish
• Different screenings (behavior/development/expression)
• Documentation and analysis of treated fish larvae (≤ 5 dpf) and their controls

This course covers structural analysis of the hypothalamic visual relay system across actinoptrygian fishes.

The Statistics module covers:

Basic test theory; 2-tests for contingency tables; t-Test; non-parametric tests; analysis of variance (ANOVA); multiple testing; power calculations; calculation rules for probabilities and neurobiological applications; guidelines for choice of analysis strategy; software implementations; effect size based hypothesis testing

The Scientific writing module:

• Introduction into general guidelines and rules for scientific writing
• Introduction into the elements of style
• Analysis and discussion of scientific texts
• How to improve and correct a text
• Practices in writing. Students will write their own texts and correct and make suggestions for improvements of the texts of others

Research ethics module covers:

• Main approaches and methods in current research ethics
• Ethical standards of good scientific practice
• Ethical issues related to research with humans
• Ethical issues related to animals
• Ethical issues related to research with biological material

Developmental biology lies at the heart of an effort to understanding complex biological systems. By studying how neural circuits are assembled we can extrapolate key aspects of their function as well as devise strategies for their repair. This course is given to deepen the understanding of how molecular and cellular mechanisms underlie neurobiological function and to widen the horizon of students within the strong Karolinska neuroscience community.

Contents of the course: The course will cover the main steps of development from neural stem cells to mature circuits, including the patterning of the neural plate and thus the origin of cell types, the interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, gene regulation including epigenetics, neuro-glia interactions and the role of network activity in shaping the final circuits. Different molecular and tracing technologies, and model organisms will be covered. An important aspect of the course regards molecular technologies for labeling, transcriptional analysis, and genetic manipulation of defined neural populations. Connections between aberrant developmental processes and neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders will be discussed.

Course director

The course is given by four course-leaders: Gonçalo Castelo-Branco, Jens Hjerling-Leffler and Ulrika Marklund all at MBB and François Lallemend at Dept of Neuroscience.