Credits: 3 credits (A/F only)

Prerequisites: dept consent

Time:

Place: Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station

The Graduate Program in Neuroscience offers a three-week laboratory course in basic neurobiology on the campus of the Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station in northern Minnesota for selected undergraduate students from universities around the country.  Each of the three weeks covers a separate subject and is taught by a separate team of faculty from the University of Minnesota.  Each part of the 3 credit course provides didactic instruction in some area of basic neurobiology along with opportunities for independent investigation through the formulation and completion of weekly projects.The setting for the course, in a pine forest on the shores of Lake Itasca, provides an atmosphere for uninterrupted study and close interaction between faculty and students.  The laboratory building contains seven fully equipped stations with a capacity for 14 students.  The emphasis of the course is on membrane excitability, the role played by channels and transmitters and on the behavior of simple neuronal systems.  The experimental preparations include the neuromuscular junction, the vertebrate retina and the mammalian central nervous system.  These are explored using a variety of experimental techniques that include intracellular and extracellular recordings, tissue preparation for in vitro study, histochemistry and antibody staining, microscopy, animal behavior, pharmacological intervention and genetic manipulation.

Follow this link for more detailed information on course modules for the current Itasca Summer Neurobiology Laboratory.

Application and registration for this course is done through the Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program in the College of Biological Sciences. For details on the application process and summer program requirements go the LSSURP website.