Undergraduate Training in Modern Techniques of Experimental Neuroscience

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This award provides funds to the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University to help purchase equipment which will be used to teach undergraduate biology students, and students in allied fields such as physics, engineering and computer sciences, modern techniques in cellular neuroscience through hands- on laboratory experience. This will be accomplished by active research scientists in a series of three undergraduate courses entitled: 1) Principles of Neurophysiology, 2) Electronics for Neurobiologists, and 3) Computer Interfacing for Neurobiologists. In the first course, undergraduates will use the state-of-the-art research equipment (computers, voltage clamp amplifiers, micromanipulators, microelectrode pullers, and perfusion pumps) in laboratory exercises designed to teach the principles of electrical signalling in the nervous system. In these exercises, computer data acquisition and analysis and teaching students the use of Macintosh II computers, along with the related hardware and software necessary for this purpose will be emphasized. This course will replace all standard vertebrate preparations with invertebrate model systems. In the electronics course, students will learn fundamental principles of electronics as applied to electrophysiology and other biological fields to design simple, relevant circuits such as those used for basic voltage and patch clamp amplifiers. The computer interfacing course will use the Macintosh II computers to teach the technical details (hardware and software) of computer interfacing methods in biological experiments. This project has important significance not only in providing undergraduates with training in new and powerful methods of experimental neuroscience, but also in developing advanced teaching tools useful for other neuroscience training programs. Through this project, undergraduate students will gain theoretical and technical skills that will help them be productive scientists in both corporate and academic research environments. The grantee is matching this award with non-Federal sources.