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.

This seminar focuses on the increasing importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in academic research and writing, providing practical insights into AI technologies; use in these areas.The workshop explores ChatGPT and prompt engineering, as well as other academic AI tools to aid research and writing, examining both benefits and challenges. Ethical aspects, such as copyright and authenticity of research results, are discussed, with the goal of equipping participants with practical knowledge and skills to effectively utilize AI in daily research through interactive elements like case studies and group discussions.

This course provides a solid ground in neuroscience, including cellular neuroscience, sensory and motor functions, and higher brain functions. It is intended for those lacking a basic neuroscience education. It runs in parallel with the Neuroscince course of the Bachelors programme in biomedicine. The course does not give regular course credits for doctoral students, but can be used to cover the demand of a grounding course in human physiology/pathology.

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.

This course covers the concepts of:

• Mechanisms of axonal transport, neuronal cytoskeleton, neurite outgrowth, extracellular matrix, neurotrophic factors
• Mechanisms of synaptic transmission, vesicles, Snare’s, structure, synthesis and inactivation of neurotransmitters, neurotransmitterreceptors, signal transduction pathways; Pre and post synaptic signal modification
• Specific features of non-neuronal cells astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, Composition, synthesis and function of myelin, biochemistry and function of astrocytes and microglia; Pathobiochemistry of Alzheimer disease, prion diseases, leukodystrophies, polyglutamin diseases and multiple sclerosis

The course aims to introduce students to human sensory perception with a focus on clinical utility and research. The neurological and evolutionary principles underlying vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and additional methods of perception will be covered.

The course will introduce the historical and evolutionary context for our senses, so as to provide an understanding for why humans operate and behave the way we do. Beyond the traditional five senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, we will discuss several other sensory modalities available to humans, including the vestibular system. The neurological principles guiding the integration of these senses will be outlined, with special reference to subconscious and conscious decision-making. These systems will then be tested through a series of practical experiments, giving students a chance to reflect on blind-spots in human perception and how to implement these in a scientific and clinical setting. Finally, common sensory pathologies will be discussed.