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Optical Imaging and Electrophysiological Methods in Neuroscience is a 11 day residential course of lectures, demonstrations and practical work in electrophysiology and microscopy applied to neurophysiology. It was initiated by the ENP in 2009.

Lectures and Practicals are held at Université Paris Descartes in the Medical School at 45 Rue des Saints Peres 75006, adjacent to the Neuroscience research labs on the third floor. Instructors and lecturers are mainly from Paris but also from labs outside Paris.

There are 25 lectures. The preliminary lecture and demonstration timetables (based on the 2015 program) are given below. The same topics will be addressed this year.

The practical work comprises 10 days hands-on practical with patch clamp recording, extracellular recording and use of CCD cameras, mainly in brain slice preparations.

Small group demonstrations will be given in microscopy, confocal microscopy, two-photon microscopy, TIRF microscopy, in vivo recording in anaesthetized or freely moving animals, viral transfection methods. 2 half-days will be spent at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Neuroscience labs and Imaging Platform.

Accommodation in a student residence will be available, lunch will be provided. No classes on Sunday 18 June. Non-Parisians should plan to arrive on Sunday June 11th and to depart on Saturday June 24th.

The fee including accommodation and lunch is 900 Euros. A reduced fee of 500 Euros applies to students who do not require accommodation.

Applications should submitted by 15 March 2017. There are 18 places.

Applications for the full course of lectures, practical labs and demonstrations should include a CV (1-2 page), a description of current research project (5000 character limit) and a letter of recommendation from thesis adviser or lab PI. The practicals and demonstrations will be available only to those accepted for the full course.

The final lecture timetable will be posted before May 1st.

Practical work is in 3 blocks of 2-3 days based around 6 rigs with ~2 demonstrators for each.

Topics are :

CCD imaging of membrane potential.

CCD imaging of Ca2+.

Photolysis.

Slice recording and synaptic transmission.

Single channel recording.

Extracellular recording and analysis.

Support from Instrument manufacturers – loans of equipment, installation and expertise

Andor – Oxford Instruments www.Andor.com, Cairn Research www.Cairn-Research.co.uk, Digitimer Ltd www.digitimer.com, HEKA www.heka.com, Luigs and Neumann www.luigs-neumann.com, MCN www.mci-neuroscience.com, Molecular Devices –Axon Inst www.moleculardevices.com, NPI Electronic www.npielectronic.com, Olympus Microscopes www.olympus.com, Scientifica UK www.scientifica.uk.com, Sensapex www.sensapex.com, Zeiss Microscopes www.zeiss.com