Catalog description: Students will explore basic principles of inter- and intra-cellular signaling in the developing and mature nervous system using comparative and phylogenetic approaches.

Dates:  (Module 3) Monday, March 22 - Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Credits:  2

Pre-requisites:  Completion of GMS 6001or consent of course coordinator, Dr. Barbara-Anne Battelle battelle@whitney.ufl.edu

Expanded course description:  This course has two major objectives:  to provide students interested in the Neurosciences an understanding of basic principles of cellular and molecular signaling in the nervous system, and to introduce students to novel experimental approaches and non-mammalian preparations that are used to explore the function of the nervous system. Students taking this course will live at the Whitney Laboratory near St. Augustine, Florida. Housing is provided on the Whitney Lab campus at no cost to the student. 
     The format will combine lecture and laboratory experiences, supplemented with discussions of papers from the primary literature and student questions. Assigned readings will be from the review and primary literature, and from the neuroscience text Purves et al., Neuroscience (2001) Sinaur Associates. This is the same text used in the IDP Neuroscience module. 
     The final grade will be based on class participation (20%) and performance on a final written exam (80%). 

Students may also elect to complete 1 credit of lab rotation (GMS 6090) while at the Whitney Lab. 

Participation in the Whitney Lab Journal/Data Club and attendance at Whitney seminars will count toward their seminar credit (GMS 6901). Students will give Journal Club presentations. The student may elect to work with a member of the faculty during the development of the presentation, and the presentation will be followed by a discussion with the faculty regarding the presentation. 


Teaching Faculty:
Peter A.V. Anderson
Barry W. Ache
Barbara-Anne Battelle
Robert M. Greenberg
Paul J. Linser
Leonid L. Moroz
Fumi Ono
David Zacharias

Others on the Whitney Lab staff may present special topics.

Specific topics covered in this course: 

Introduction to basic concepts
    Invertebrate animal design
    Neuronal signaling, electrical and chemical
Building better brains 
    Determination of pattern formation
    Genetic analyses of early events
    Cell differentiation and maturation
Development of the neuromuscular junction
    Underlying mechanisms
    Receptors and channels in health and disease
Sensory coding in the nervous system
    Mechanisms of olfactory transduction- the lobster model
    Principles of sensory coding in the nervous system
    Discovering neural organization in arthropods
Vision, circadian rhythms and neuromodulation
    The photoresponse - themes and variations
    Basic principles and mechanisms of circadian rhythms
    Circadian modulation of the photoresponse
Evolution of ion channels
    Host parasite interactions
    Phylogenetic analyses of molecular sequences - a practical approach. 
Signaling with lipids
    The roles of lipid modifications in cell signaling
How to build neural networks: Lessons from Aplysia.
    Signaling with gasses
    Peptidergic systems and their evolution
    Cellular basis of learning and memory
    Simple networks in vitro.
Complex behaviors generated from the simplest nervous system
    Structure and function of the cnidarian nervous system
    Cnidarian model systems
    Cnidarian behavior

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