This workshop provides a hands-on learning experience with a focus on a wider variety of AI tools, their ethical implications and their practical applications. The aim is to facilitate the responsible and efficient use of AI-based tools in research and academia.

Content:

• Understand the importance of using AI in research and academia and assess the benefits and risks involved
• Craft effective prompts for your research tasks
• Develop strategies to integrate AI tools into your research workflow
• Stay informed about and adapt to new developments in the field of AI

At the end of the workshop, you will receive a list of generative AI prompts useful in research and academia. There will be practice sessions during the workshop for which you will need access to AI tools, particularly ChatGPT/GPT-4o. If you do not have an account with ChatGPT/GPT-4o, alternatives like Microsoft Copilot, Google Bard or Claude.ai could also be used.

Topics covered include:

• Hearing and speech perception and associated disorders (e.g., hearing loss, deafness, tinnitus)
• Vestibular function and associated disorders
• Objective electrophysiological measures: auditory and/or vestibular evoked responses (ECochG, BERA, ASSR, CERA, VEMP)
• Behavioural experiments (psychoacoustics)
• Principles of hearing rehabilitation with neural prostheses, i.e., cochlear implants
• Research methods in audiology/auditory neuroscience
• Application of methodology (in patients, if possible)
• How to design and conduct research projects

Topics covered include:

• Computational design strategies
• Differential equations
• Programming in Python
• Data analysis

Topics covered include:

• Experimental design strategies
• Fluorescent immuno-histochemistry
• Confocal Microscopy
• Intra-vital Microscopy (e.g. two-photon, three-photon, 2P-STED, ...)
• Data analysis
• Behaviour

Topics covered include:

• Tissue isolation and cryosectioning
• Immunofluorescent staining/Western blots
• Tissue isolation and cryosectioning
• Imaging (e.g. Confocal microscopy, Slide scanner etc.)
• (Semi-) automated image anaylsis (e.g. Fiji, machine learning based analysis)

Topics covered include:

• Coding: basic concepts, practical training, testing
• Foundations of sensor technologies
• Foundations of Bluetooth communication
• Usage of advanced programming interfaces (APIs)
• Analysis of time series data
• Introduction to machine learning techniques

Topics covered include:

• CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing in mammalian cell lines
• CRISPRoff genome editing tools to modify activity of gene promoters
• Cloning of promoter regions and relevant proteins into reporter gene and mammalian expression vectors
• Reporter gene assays to measure activity of gene promoters or unknown DNA sequences using plate luminometer
• Chemical modification of genomic DNA for DNA methylation analysis
• Pyrosequencing for detection and quantification of DNA methylation
• Chromatin preparation and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis
• Standard PCR and quantitative reverse transcription PCR analysis
• Transfection and expression of relevant proteins in mammalian cells
• Western blotting for protein analysis

Topics covered include:

• rAAV-guided engram labeling techniques (Cal-Light, SomCal-Light, FLARE)
• Tissue engineering (FluoClearBABB, ExM)
• Large-field superresolution microscopy
• AI-guided behavioral classification
• Multifactorial behavioral classification

Topics covered include:

• Histological preparation of rodent sensory organs
• Immunohistochemistry on mole-rat and mouse neuronal tissues
• 3D histology using tissue clearing
• Fluorescence microscopy, Light sheet microscopy
• Behavioural assessment of magnetic orientation under controlled conditions

Topics covered include:

• Assessment of memory and imagination in patients with neurodegenerative dementias and related to aphantasia
• Rating of patients’ memory reports
• Analysis of patient data
• Writing summary reports

Topics covered include:

• animal models to study epileptogenesis
• *omics analyses of human epileptic specimen
• Screening analyses for classical auto-antibodies and new candidates inpatients suspicious for limbic encephalitis
• Analyzing the functional role of patient-derived auto-antibodies in epilepsy in vitro und in vivo
• Analyzing synchronous network activity in vitro (multi electrode array; MEA)
• CrispR-Cas systems to interfere with epileptogenesis
• Generation of animal models to study limbic encephalitis
• Neuropathology in experimental LE

Topics covered include:

• Hypothesis driven planning and design of experiments for research project
• Cloning, colony cracking and transfection
• Cell culture and life cell imaging
• Imaging and data analysis
• Application of techniques depend on individual working plan

Topics covered include:

• How to design, code (C#, Unity) and conduct virtual reality experiments
• How to record, time-sync and real-time access physiological data streams during virtual reality experiments (based on LabStreamingLayer)
• How to analyse psychophysiological data (e.g.: wireless EEG, EMG, EDA, HRV or Eyetracking), using common Matlab-packages such as EEGLAB or LEDALAB

Topics covered inlude:

• Cognitive neuroscience of social perception and cognition
• Dysfunctions of social perception and cognition
• Research methods in social neuroscience (signal detection theory; metacognition; experimental psychology; classification methods)
• Experimental design

Students will have the opportunity to:

• work with various model systems (e.g. different cell lines, C. elegans and tissue from transgenic mice
• perform different biochemical analysis assays (e.g. Western blot, RT-PCR) 
• immunohistechemical stainings and confocal imaging

In addition to hands-on practical methods, students will attend scientific lectures and seminars.

Topics covered include:

• Basic fluorescence microscopy
• Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), 2P excitation
• Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)
• Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (d-STORM)
• 3D-Electron microscopy, focused-ion beam (FIB) milling and scanning EM, specimen preparation and embedding.

Topics covered include:

• Reconstruction of neuron morphologies
• Histological preparation of brain tissue
• Electrophysiological recordings of single neurons in vivo
• Simulations of cellular function via multi-compartmental neuron models

This course covers acquisition and advanced analysis of MRI-data in clinical research including scanning
routines, tractography, tract-based spatial statistics, voxel-based morphometry and
support machine vector programming.

Topics covered include:

• mechanisms of neuron-astrocyte signal exchange in the hippocampus and their relevance for synaptic transmission and its plasticity, for hippocampus-dependent cognitive processes and behaviors such as spatial navigation
• research methods will be selected from:
  • multiphoton fluorescence imaging and its applications for studying astrocyte/neuron signaling (e.g. Ca2+ imaging) and structural plasticity
  • advanced imaging techniques of optical indicators (e.g. FRET, FLIM) and indicator development (e.g. in HEK cells, acute brain slices)
  • electrophysiological methods like the patch clamp technique
  • super-resolution microscopy (expansion microscopy)
  • introduction to behavioral analyses (e.g. spatial memory, machine-learning based analysis)

Topics covered include:

• Principles of optogenetic Actuators
• Cell-type specific expression techniques for optogenetic actuators
• Technologies to achieve light-based optogenetic Stimulation in-vitro and in-vivo
• Combination of optogenetic techniques with patch-clamp techniques

Topics covered include:

• Mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy
• Patch clamp analysis and single cell RT-PCR
• Analysis of gap junction-mediated astrocyte coupling by tracer diffusion assays
• Analysis of seizure activity by EEG and video monitoring
• Immunoblot analysis and Real-Time PCR
• Immunohistochemical staining and confocal microscopy

Topics covered include:

• Electrophysiological recording techniques
• Design of cognitive paradigms
• Spike detection and spike sorting
• Peri-stimulus time histograms
• Data analysis and statistical evaluation

Topics covered include:

• chemical modification of genomic DNA
• assay design for targeted DNA methylation analysis
• pyrosequencing for detection of DNA methylation
• histological analyses of epigenetic modifications on histones and DNA
• functional cell assays
• glioma cell culture

Topics covered include:

• DNA isolation from human tissues
• Detection of mtDNA mutations in human samples by various PCR-based techniques
• Detection and quantification of multiple mtDNA deletion by single-molecule PCR
• mtDNA sequencing and deletion mapping

Topics covered include:

• Cloning of relevant proteins into mammalian and bacterial expression vectors
• Expression of relevant proteins in mammalian and bacterial cell culture systems (Transfection, viral transduction)
• Protein extraction from mammalian and bacterial cells
• Protein analysis - western immunoblotting, analysis of protein-protein interactions
• Analysis with immunocytochemical techniques – microscopy
• Live cell imaging

Topics covered include:

• Basics of MRI and functional MRI
• Design of psychological experiments
• Analysis of functional MRI data
• Functional Neuroanatomy

Topics covered include:

• Cloning of relevant proteins into mammalian and bacterial expression vectors
• Expression of relevant proteins in mammalian and bacterial cell culture systems
• Protein extraction from mammalian and bacterial cells – subcellular fractionation
• Protein analysis - western immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation
• Analysis with immunocytochemical techniques – microscopy

Topics covered include:

• Application of immunohistochemistry combined with tissue clearing and subsequent expansion of labeled structures
• Training in confocal fluorescence microscopy
• Ultrastructural analyses and quantification of synaptic proteins under different experimental conditions
• Exploration of synaptic structure and perisynaptic glia

Topics covered include:

• Basics of cell culture and tissue analysis
• Functional bio-assays related to neuroinflammation
• Molecular analysis of cells and tissues samples
• Flow cytometry (FACS) analyses of cells
• Confocal imaging analyses of tissue

Topics covered include:

• linear and nonlinear time series analysis methods for the characterization of complex dynamical systems
• statistical tools
• analysis of biomedical data (e.g. EEG, structural/functional MRI data)