The goal of the summer Neurobiology Course is to provide students who are likely to become creative and productive neurobiologists with an intensive course in Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, taught by creative and productive scientists. In four consecutive sections, Physiology, Biochemistry, Development, and Structure, the lectures and laboratories are planned to bring the students tothe forefront, to identify significant unsolved problems, and to familiarize them with experimental approaches that might be useful in solving these problems. The themes of the Course, examined from different points of view in the different sections, are the special functions of neural cells and the molecular components and cellular organization underlying these funtions. Specifically, the Physiology Section is concerned with impulse conduction, with synaptic transmission and reception, and with the ion channels underlying these phenomena. In the laboratory, the students monitor channel activities, and their regulation by membrane potential and specific ligands, in whole cells, in isolated membrane patches, and in reconstituted membrane. The Biochemistry Section is concerned with the molecular components involved in the synthesis, storage, and release of neurotransmitters, with second messsengers, and with isolated receptors and voltage-gated channels. The laboratory stresses methods of protein biochemistry, such as affinity chromatographhy, reconstitution, affinity labeling, and peptide mapping, and methods of molecular genetics, such as cloning, mapping, sequencing, and gene transfer. The Development Section will examine the expression of characteristic functions and molecular components in primary cultures and cell lines of nerve and muscle. The determination of transmitter type, neuronal migration, the onset of excitability, synaptogenseis, cell death, and the dependence of these phenomena on intrinsic programs and on extrinsic signals will be the subjects of lectures and laboratory projects. The Structure Section is concerned with the static and dynamic morphology of neural cells pertinent to synaptic transmission, glial function, and axonal transport. Laboratory projects include electron microscopy of samples prepared by molecular shadowing, rapid freezing, and other cryogenic methods. Video-enhanced light microscopy is used to follow structural changes in living cells and to detect fluorescent probes and antibodies.
