PhD Courses in Denmark

Advanced Neuroscience – Molecular, cellular and synaptic properties

Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen

Aim and content

This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.

Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.


Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. Understand and assess state of the art research on regulation of brain development and the role and function of different cell types in health and disease
2. Understand the most recent scientific advances on neuronal signaling, including synaptic function and plasticity and how this governs small neural circuits
3. Critically discuss and put into perspective contemporary scientific literature
4. Identify and explain state of the art experimental approaches to gaps in the current knowledge


Content
This course aims to give Danish neuroscience PhD students a streamlined and solid understanding in a range of central, state of the art neuroscience topics, bringing them to the forefront of current scientific knowledge. The course will cover the following areas:

- Cellular diversity in the brain
o Fundamentals of brain development
o Epigenetic control of brain development
o Developmental origin of psychiatric disorders
o Organoids to model brain development and disorders

- Neurons and synapses
o mRNA mechanism of neurons
o Epigenetic regulation of neurons
o Neuronal organelles
o Protein transport and trafficking
o Neuronal proteostasis
o Neuronal & synaptic signaling

- Synaptic plasticity
o The plastic synaptic machinery
o Short-term synaptic plasticity
o Homeostatic plasticity

- Glial cell biology
o Glia cells in the healthy brain
o Glia cells in disease

- Small circuits
o Microcircuit organization in the brain
o Feedforward and feedback inhibition
o Excitation/Inhibition ratio


Participants
This course is intended for students with a strong foundation in neuroscience.


Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
- Neuroscience


Language
English


Form
Each course day will consist of a mixture of lecture- and workshop-based learning, consolidated through student presentations.


Course director
Jakob Balslev Sørensen, Professor, Department of Neuroscience, jakobbs@sund.ku.dk


Teachers
- Vijay Tiwari, Professor, University of Southern Denmark
- Kyung Min Noh, Professor, Aarhus University
- Konstantin Khodosevich, Professor, University of Copenhagen
- Martin Røssel Larsen, Professor, University of Southern Denmark
- Chao Sun, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
- Taro Kitazawa, Aarhus University
- Jakob Balslev Sørensen, Professor, University of Copenhagen
- Alexander Walter, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
- Zsolt Illes, Professor, University of Southern Denmark
- Iben Lundgaard, Associate Professor, Lund University
- Naoki Yamawaki, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
- Jean-Francois Perrier, University of Copenhagen


Dates
March 10-14, 2025


Course location
Comwell Bygholm Park, Horsens


Registration
Please register before Dec 31, 2024


Expected frequency
This is an annual course with rotating main topics


Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.

Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.