Summer school program.

The school will be divided into two distinct parts:

During the first week, tutorials and courses will be offered in the morning while afternoons will be entirely dedicated to hands-on experiments in the laboratories. Participants will directly perform the experiments under the supervision of our experts.

In the second part of the school, students will be leading a small research projects on a given topic of their choice. The list of available topics will be published shortly and applicants will be encouraged to list several choices by order of preference.
We will do our best to offer each students the topic of their choice depending on availability and demand.

Monday 24

9:00-10:30 Daniel Côté: Basics of lasers and optical imaging
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Paul De Koninck: Tracking proteins on the move in neurons
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Experiment preview
14:30-18 :30 Hands-on Lab experiments
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Tuesday 25

9:00-10:30 Denis Boudreau: Principles of fluorescence
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Thomas Knopfel: Engineering genetically-encoded Ca²⁺and voltage sensors.
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Experiment preview
14:30-18 :30 Hands-on Lab experiments
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Wednesday 26

9:00-10:30 Richard Robitaille: Basics of Ca²⁺ imaging in live cells: applications to the study of glial-neuron interactions
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00:12:30 Frédéric Leblond: Fluorescence-guided resection of intracranial tumors
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Experiment preview
14:30-18 :30 Hands-on Lab experiments
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Thursday 27

9:00-10:30 Edward Ruthazer:
Tools for imaging neuronal morphogenesis and synaptogenesis in vivo
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Stéphane Dieudonné: Challenges of ultra-fast imaging; development of ultra-fast digitally-addressable 2-photons microscopy
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Experiment preview
14:30-18 :30 Hands-on Lab experiments
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Friday 28

9:00-10:30 Tim Murphy: Imaging and optogenetic tools for studying cortical circuit structure and function in healthy brain and after stroke
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Frédéric Lesage: Diffuse optical tomography
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:30 Experiment preview
14:30-18 :30 Hands-on Lab experiments
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Saturday 29 - Free Time

Sunday 30

9:00-10:30 Daniel Côté: Multimodal cellular imaging in vivo
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Projects
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-18 :30 Projects
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Monday 31

9:00-10:30 Peter Stys: Calcium activity in the spinal cord
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Projects
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-18 :30 Projects
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Tuesday 01

9:00-10:30 Alan Fine: Optical quantal analysis via two-photons microscopy of calcium transients
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-12:30 Projects
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-18 :30 Projects
18:30-19:30 Dinner
19:30-22:00 Data analysis

Wednesday 02

9:00-12:30 Trainees Presentations
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-22:00 Debriefing

Hands-on sessions (Monday 24 to Friday 28):

Afternoons will be dedicated to hands-on experiments in the different labs (in teams of 2 students). During the first week, rotations among the different labs will be organized to give each team the opportunity to get familiar with each experimental approach (under the guidance of tutors). In the last three days, each team will be given the opportunity to conduct a short project on one of the setups. Topics covered include:

FRET-FLIM: Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) applied to the protein-protein interactions and ion fluctuations in different subcellular compartments of a neuron.
Workshop: Fundamentals of linear and non-linear microscopy: Basics of the laser-scanning microscope, and the resolution limits of optical microscopy.

Cell tracking in live tissue: Tracking neural progenitor cells migration, differentiation, and synaptogenesis in adult brain live tissue using different labeling strategies and imaging modalities: Video microscopy and 2-photons microscopy.
Monitoring dendrites and spine maturation.
Workshop: (Lois Micaucourt): Imaging neuronal development and synaptogenesis in developing tadpoles.

Calcium imaging in neurons: 2-photons fluorescence measurements of Ca²⁺ transients in dendrites in acute hippocampal brain slices using synthetic Ca²⁺ dyes.
Wide-field calcium imaging in cultured neurons using genetically-encoded Ca²⁺ sensors.
In vivo recording using opto-electric microprobes.

Linear and non-linear microcopy in live animals: Animal preparation, optical tool, video-rate hardware, movement correction.
Myelin imaging in nerves and spinal cord using Coherent Raman (CARS microscopy).
Monitoring blood flow in live brain (Speckle imaging in vivo).

Live imaging of protein translocation in cultured neurons: Time lapse imaging of the dynamic translocation of GFP-tagged intracellular proteins in live neurons.
Measurements of movement dynamics with FRAP approaches and photo-stimulation of proteins tagged with photo-inducible GFP.
Tracking of single membrane receptors on cultured neurons with Quantum dots as fluorescent tags.