CAREER: An Internet-Based Multimedia Approach to Teaching Developmental Neurobiology with Integrated Research on Neuronal Migration

9734550 PHELPS博士的早期职业生涯奖包含与发育神经生物学领域相关的教育和研究部分。与加州大学洛杉矶分校克伦普生物成像研究所的Gambhir博士及其同事合作，其教育目标是为一门新的发育神经生物学本科课程建立一个基于互联网的多媒体学习系统。在神经系统发育过程中，许多复杂的组织运动发生，学生很难用课本上典型的二维图形来理解，但当以三维动画的形式呈现时，它们就变得生动起来。设计彩色动画描绘这些复杂的组织运动是这个项目的重要目标。另一个重点是整合在发育神经生物学领域工作的科学家的数据。例如，延时视频显微镜将展示活体神经元的观察结果，并将用于课堂演示，向学生介绍令人兴奋的新研究技术。学生可以在网上复习课堂报告，并利用互动测验作为学习辅助。这样的评估工具将帮助学生，也将为教师提供有关这种新的基于互联网的学习系统的有效性的信息。研究部分的目的是确定在早期脊髓发育过程中，哪些结构和/或分子引导了一组化学定义的神经元的独特迁移。被研究的神经元，被称为“u源”细胞，使用乙酰胆碱作为它们的神经递质，可以通过免疫学和组织化学方法来识别。在胚胎第15天和第16天之间，u源性细胞从最初的腹侧位置迁移到脊髓的背侧和中央部分。这些细胞的迁移方向与大多数其他神经元利用的径向路径垂直。为了确定引导这种独特迁移的结构和/或分子线索，菲尔普斯博士将尝试通过实验阻止迁移。菲尔普斯博士使用了一种器官型切片培养系统，该系统已被证明可以支持u源性细胞的正常迁移，并维持神经元与其环境之间相对正常的细胞间关系，而且可以进行化学和手术操作，而这在整个胚胎中是不可能的。设计了各种不同的实验来破坏培养中的这种细胞迁移。这些实验的结果将确定u源性细胞的背侧迁移是否受到结构线索（如早期形成的轴突）和/或分子线索（如不同类型的粘附分子）的引导。

9734550 PHELPS Dr. Phelps' Early Career award contains both educational and research components related to the field of developmental neurobiology. The educational aim is to build an internet-based multimedia learning system for a new undergraduate course on developmental neurobiology, in collaboration with Dr. Gambhir and colleagues at the Crump Institute for Biological Imaging at UCLA. During nervous system development, many complex tissue movements occur that are difficult for students to understand using the typical 2-dimensional drawings from textbooks, yet they come alive when presented as 3-dimensional animations. Designing colorful animations depicting these complicated tissue movements is an important goal of this project. An additional focus is to incorporate data from scientists working in the field of developmental neurobiology. For example, time-lapse video microscopy demonstrating observations of living neurons will be used in classroom presentations to introduce students to exciting new research techniques. Students are able to review class presentations over the web, and utilize interactive quizzes as study aids. Such evaluation tools will help the students, but also will provide the teachers with information about the effectiveness of this new internet-based learning system. The aim of the research component is to determine what structures and/or molecules guide the unique migration of a group of chemically defined neurons during early spinal cord development. The neurons under study, called the "U-derived" cells, use acetylcholine as their neurotransmitter and can be identified by both immunological and histochemical methods. Between embryonic days 15 and 16, U-derived cells migrate from their initial ventral locations to their final destinations within the dorsal and central parts of the spinal cord. These cells migrate in a direction perpendicular to the radial pathways utilized by most other neurons. To determine the structural and/or molecular cues that guide this unique migration, Dr. Phelps will attempt to block the migration experimentally. Dr. Phelps uses an organotypic slice culture system that has been shown to support normal migration of U-derived cells and maintains relatively normal intercellular relationships between neurons and their environment, yet is accessible to both chemical and surgical manipulation, which would not be possible the whole embryo. A variety of different experiments are designed to disrupt this cell migration in culture. Results from these experiments will determine if the dorsal migration of the U-derived cells is guided by structural cues, such as early forming axons, and/or by molecular cues such as different types of adhesion molecules.