2016 Summer Workshop for Teachers

Neuroscience – from molecules to treatments

The 2016 CBMM Teachers’ workshop entitled “Strides in understanding brain functions and disorder” was offered during the 3rd week of July (July 18 -22).

Distinguished speakers from leading academic laboratories discussed novel approaches and findings ranging from brain development, illusions, updates from autism and dyslexia research and brain modifications in response to stress and disease.

The laboratory component of this workshop covered: electrophysiology experiments with live cockroaches, and hands-on demonstration of neuroimaging methods and data analysis including fMRI. The teachers were encouraged to review the following links prior to attending the workshop:

Talks included:

  • Kathy Savage: University of Florida; Pathogenesis: Introduction to pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance, and common virulence factors found in pathogenicity islands
  • Dr. Jo Marie Bacusmo: University of Florida; Comparative Genomics: Introduction to comparative genomics, its applications in science and basic    comparative genomics tools such as PATRIC and Island Viewer 3
  • Dr. Maryam Vaziri Pashkam: Vision Science lab, Harvard University; Colors, motions and shapes, an overview of visual perception
  • Prof Ken Nakayama: Vision science lab, Harvard University; Visual awareness and attention
  • Prof. John Gabrieli: McGovern Institute & Dept of Brain & cognitive Science, MIT; Typical and atypical development of human brain
  • Prof. Brian L Edlow: Lab of neuroimaging and consciousness, Mass General Hospital; Biology of Brain trauma and Stroke
  • Dr. Hermanos Kreb: Mechanical Engineering Dept, MIT; Translating neuroscience into neurorehabilitation

Laboratory activities included: