SECOND SEMESTER – Master Neuroscience in Athens

Neurobiological Basis of Diseases of the Nervous System

dmhsupport — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:35:27 +0000

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Co-ordinators

Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology, Medical School of Athens, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

Professor of Neurobiology, Department of Biology, Division of Animal & Human Physiology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

Description:

This is an intensive 2.5-week course focused on the Genetics, the general processes that operate in several different neurological disorders, the pathology of neurological disorders, their molecular basis, as well as experimental therapeutics. The goal of this intensive course is that students become well versed with the genetic and molecular basis of the disorders of the nervous system.

Course Overview

The course covers general principles that apply to several disorders of the nervous system as well as the description and the pathology and the molecular basis of individual diseases.

General principles include:

Examples of the diseases of the nervous system that will be covered include:

Alzheimer's disease
Parkinson's disease
Motor Neuron Disease
Schizophrenia
Depression
Triple repeat disorders
Epilepsy
Addiction
Nervous System Cancers
Brain and Spinal Cord injury

Skills and Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

A/A	Neurobiological Basis of Diseases of the Nervous System:	Lecturer
1	Neurodegenerative diseases as proteinopathies	Kostas Vekrellis
2	Molecular and Cellular Biology of Parkinsons’s Disease and related synucleinopathies	Leonidas Stefanis
3	Molecular and Cellular Biology of Alzheimer’s Disease	Spiros Efthimiopoulos
4	Neurodevelopmental and neuronal migration disorders of the human brain	Christina Kyrousi
5	Protein degradation in neurodegenerative diseases	Maria Xilouri
6	Mechanisms of Addiction	Styliani Vlachou, Alexia Polissidis
7	Brain and Spinal Cord injury	Florentia Papastefanaki
8	Motor Neuron Disease	Laskaro Zagoreou
9	Neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases	Dimitris Vassilatis
10	Molecular Basis of taupathies	Katerina Papanikolopoulou
11	Biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases	Georgios Paraskevas
12	Cognitive functions and behavior in dementias	Sokratis Papageorgiou
13	Molecular Basis of taupathies	Katerina Papanikolopoulou
14	Life style and neurodegeneration	Nikos Scarmeas
15	Epilepsy	Anastasios Bonakis
16	Triple repeat disorders	George Koutsis
17	Molecular and genetic basis of schizophrenia	Alex Hatzimanolis
18	Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and depression	Nikos Smyrnis
19	Biology of Depression	Christina Dalla, Nikolaos Kokras
20	Nervous System Cancers	Mimika Mangoura
21	Mitochondrial function and dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease development and progression	Konstantinos Palikaras
22	Student Presentations	Hardy Rideout-Karadima Georgia

Neuroimmunology

dmhsupport — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:27:28 +0000

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Co-ordinators

MD, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

PhD, Researcher C, Department of Immunology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute

Description:

This is an intensive 2.5-week course focused on neuroimmunology that includes lectures and student presentations. All material will focus on learning the interactions between the immune and nervous systems and their relevance to the pathology of diseases, particularly those of the central nervous system (CNS). The course will teach basic principles of immune system function, and evidence for its involvement in nervous system function and dysfunction from the study of experimental disease models and clinical data from patients with autoimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases. The goal is that students become conversant with the extent of immune system involvement in nervous system under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The course will be interactive, with students actively participating through their own research into, and presentations of, currently developing areas in this field.

Course Overview

The course will combine basic research and clinical experience in the field of neuroimmunology to study the involvement of the innate and adaptive immune systems in the CNS under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The course covers the general principles of peripheral and CNS immune systems, neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, animal models for the study of autoimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases of the CNS, human neuroimmune diseases and clinical experience with current immunotherapeutics for their treatment.

Basic principles of the immune system
Cell migration into the CNS and antigen presentation
CNS immune system and functions in physiology and disease
Neurodegeneration and neurorepair
Animal models- critical appraisal as models for human neuroinflammatory diseases
Human neuroimmune diseases
Immunotherapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases

Skills and Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

Understand the structure and functions of the peripheral immune system with relevance to neuroimmune interactions.
Understand the components and functions of the endogenous CNS immune system
Be able to critically analyse results from experimental models and assess their relevance for human disease.
Be conversant with the extent of immune involvement in neurological disease.
Be able to appreciate the benefits and limits of current immunotherapeutics, and understand open needs for new therapies, for the treatment of human diseases.

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

A/A	Neuroimmunology	Lecturer
	Basic principles of the peripheral immune system
1	Innate immune system	Ourania Tsitsilonis / Ioannis Kostopoulos
2	Adaptive immune system (B and T cells)	Ourania Tsitsilonis / Ioannis Kostopoulos
	Immune cells and mechanisms relevant for CNS immune responses
3	Neutrophils and immune mechanisms	Konstantinos Kambas
4	Microglia in health and disease	Konstantinos Kambas
	Blood Brain Barrier and ”CNS immune privilege”
5	Pericytes: functions in health and disease	David Attwell
6	Structure and function of BBB, participation in CNS autoimmunity	Dimitris Kitsos
7	Live imaging T cell interactions with the BBB	Naoto Kawakami
	Mechanisms of neuroinflammatory diseases
	Immunology for Alzheimer’s disease – experimental models of disease	Spiros Georgopoulos
	Models of multiple sclerosis: modeling the contribution of autoimmunity and therapeutic aspects	Anastasia Dagkonaki
8	Autoantibody and B-cell diseases of the CNS	Harry Alexopoulos
	Human autoimmune disease and new technological advances
9	Human Multiple Sclerosis- clinical aspects	Marina Bosiki
10	New technological advances in neuroimmunology	Lesley Probert
11	Bioinformatics	Artemis Chatzigeorgiou

Behavioural Neuroscience in Animals

dmhsupport — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:15:12 +0000

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Co-ordinators

Researcher A, Biomedical Science Research Centre “Alexander Fleming”

Associate Professor of Biology-Biology of Behaviour, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Description:

This course will explore the general themes and important questions in the field of animal behavior including the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms. Topics will include the underlying genetics of behavior, behavioral development, various forms of learning, decision making, social interaction, sexual and parental behavior. The goal of this course to familiarize students with animal models emulating emotional and cognitive functions of humans.

Course Overview

Attention & Habituation
Learning & Memory I: Aplysia-molecular concepts
Learning & Memory II: Mammals – Hippocampus
Learning & Memory III: LTP & place cells
Learning & Memory IV: Adult neurogenesis
Learning & Memory V: Drosophila
Learning & Memory VI: Zebra fish
Emotions and the limbic system
Motivation and the reward system of the brain
Prefrontal cortex: Decision making, working memory and monitoring of behavior
Social Interaction & aggression Ι-Non mammalian species 12. Social Interaction & aggression ΙΙ-Mammals
Sexual behavior
Maternal/Parental behavior
Effects of early life experiences on emotion and cognition

Skills and Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course the students will be acquainted with the scientific research on animal behavior and will understand the complexity of the mechanisms controlling behavior.

Goals will be to:

Gain knowledge of common biological terms and principles used in the study of animal behaviour
Comprehend behavioral terms and principles and demonstrate this comprehension via interpretation of material in lecture
Apply studied behavioral terms and principles to new situations
Analyze behavioral principles based on the ability to distinguish between facts and inferences
Synthesize general principles from different sub-fields of behavior to solve problems using creative thinking
Evaluate behavioral principles in a study of the behavioral literature

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

A/A	Behavioral Neuroscience in Animals	Lecturer
1	Attention & Habituation	Efthimios Skoulakis
2	Learning & Memory I: Aplysia-molecular concepts	Efthimios Skoulakis
3	Learning & Memory II: Drosophila	Efthimios Skoulakis
4	Learning & Memory III: Drosophila experimental strategies	Efthimios Skoulakis
5	Learning & Memory VI: Mammals –Hippocampus	Irene Skaliora
6	Social Interaction & aggression Ι-Non mammalian species	Efthimios Skoulakis
7	Social Interaction & aggression ΙΙ-Mammals	Antonis Stamatakis
8	Sexual behavior Maternal/Parental behavior	Antonis Stamatakis
9	Emotions and the limbic system	Irene Skaliora
10	Motivation and the reward system of the brain	Antonis Stamatakis
11	Prefrontal cortex: Decision making, working memory and monitoring of behavior	Antonis Stamatakis

Neuropharmacology

dmhsupport — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:04:28 +0000

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Co-ordinators

Assistant Professor of Psychopharmacology, Dept. of Pharmacology, Medical School, NKUA

Psychiatrist/Psychopharmacologist, Dept. of Pharmacology, Medical School of Athens, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

Description:

This is an intensive 2.5-week course focused on neuropsychopharmacology that includes lectures from pharmacologists, clinicians, neuroscientists and other specialties. The course will also accommodate student’s presentations on specific neuropharmacological issues, as well as written-exercises on pharmacological experimental design.

The lectures will focus on basic principles of pharmacology (such as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics), information on drug design and discovery, treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as drug-induced changes in functioning of the nervous system. Additionally, the lecturers will give an overview of the techniques and models used for the study of neuropharmacology, as well as the basics of CNS clinical research, including regulations and statistical principles.

The goal is that students will become accustomed with neuropsychiatric treatment, modelling and research. Ultimately, they will be able to pose relevant neuropharmacological questions and contribute to the design of preclinical and clinical studies.

Course Overview

The course will include lectures on drug design/discovery, as well as principles of neuropharmacology preclinical and clinical studies. Students will have the opportunity to present specific neuropharmacological issues, as well as to perform written-exercises on pharmacological experimental design and analysis.

Most importantly, an interactive approach, with the use of poll-machines, will be used for the teaching of the neuropharmacological basis, study and mechanism of action of:

Antipsychotics
Antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers
Antiepileptics
Cognitive enhancers
Drugs of abuse
Antiparkinsonian drugs and drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases
Neuroimaging ligands

Skills and Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Understand basic pharmacological principles
Know about most classes of neuropharmacology drugs
Know about adverse effects, drug interactions and genomics of CNS-acting drugs
Identify new targets for CNS treatments and pose relevant questions
Understand the methods used in preclinical and clinical neuropharmacology
Contribute to the design of preclinical and clinical neuropharmacology studies

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

A/A	Neuropharmacology	Lecturer
1	Introduction and assignments	Christina Dalla, Stella Vlachou
2	Drug design/discovery	Dimitrios Vassilatis
3	Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics	Nikos Kokras
4	Neuroimaging ligands	Ioannis Pirmettis
5	Treatment of Neurodegenerative disorders (PD) and new targets	Neny Pervanidou
6	Neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD, autism etc) and treatment	Leonidas Stefanis
7	The use of novel analytical techniques in medical research and drug discovery	Antonis Tsarbopoulos
8	Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics	Nikos Kokras
9	Antiepileptics	Christina Dalla, Marinos Sotiropoulos
10	Treatment of Neurodegenerative disorders (MS) and new targets	Harris Alexopoulos
11	Neuropsycho-pharmacogenomics	Dimitris Dikaios
12	Treatment of Neurodegenerative disorders (AD) and new targets	Ioannis Sotiropoulos
13	Neurobiology of Addiction, Alcohol	Foteini Delli
14	CNS Stimulants, Cannabis	Katerina Antoniou and Alexia Polissidis
15	Addiction and Nicotine	Stella Vlachou
16	Opioids and Psychedelics	Alexia Polissidis
17	Antipsychotics and lithium	Nikos Kokras
18	Anxiolytics and Antidepressants	Nikos Kokras, Christina Dalla
19	Pharmacoepidemiology	Giota Touloumi
20	Basics in clinical research	Eirini Griva

Research Training Exercise (Laboratory Rotation) – Technical Courses IΙ

dmhsupport — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 10:00:16 +0000

Teaching hours

This is a 2nd semester course of about 8 weeks that corresponds to 10 ECTs and 39 total hours of lectures and approximately 320 total hours of laboratory presence/training.

It is subdivided into the following parts:

Co-ordinators

Senior Investigator, Department of Neurobiology, Hellenic Pasteur Institute

Senior Research Scientist, Basic Research Center, Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Academy of Athens

Technical Courses IV: Methodological approaches in Neuroscience, Microscopy-neuroimaging

Description:

This is an intensive three-week course centered around the study of neuroimaging technologies, that includes lectures, laboratory/hands-on sessions and participation in the acquisition and analysis of neurophysiological/neuroimaging data. All material will focus primarily on learning the different imaging systems and technologies used to study the nervous system, from conventional microscopy to advanced in vivo imaging both in laboratory animals and humans. Attention will be given on learning current digital image processing tools used to analyze/ quantify imaging data. The goal of this intensive course is to provide students with knowledge of novel, state-of-the-art imaging approaches currently used to study nervous system function. Hands on laboratory sessions will allow students to learn through direct experience.

Course Overview

Teaching and some hands-on training of a wide range of imaging tools and technologies currently used to study nervous system morphology, function and dysfunction, both in laboratory animals and humans. The course covers general principles of microscopy (both optical and electron), nuclear and MR imaging, image processing and analysis, as well as advanced neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging approaches linking microscopic analysis with behavior. More specifically, the topics covered include:

Introduction to human brain function imaging techniques
Anatomical Neuroimaging
Live cell dynamics imaging
FLIM-FRET
FRAP, in vivo FRAP
Mechanosensors
Multiphoton confocal microscopy
Intravital imaging
Calcium imaging at whole animal level
Optogenetics

Neurophysiology: EEG/MEG
PET/SPECT Imaging
fMRI Imaging
Electron microscopy
Image Processing (ImageJ, Imaris, Icy)
Image Data analysis (MATLAB)
Functional Imaging data preprocessing and analysis (SPM)
Neurophysiological (EEG/MEG) data preprocessing and analysis (EEGLAB)

Skills & Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Know the basic principles of microscopy and the imaging systems used to study the nervous system.
Know the latest applications of imaging technology currently used to answer scientific questions related to nervous structure and function and dynamic cellular interactions.
Get in touch with software used for the processing of digital images/videos.
Get hands-on training on advanced microscopy and Image Analysis systems currently available in the labs of the participating course instructors.
Understand the design of experimental procedures used in neurophysiological (EEG/MEG) and functional neuroimaging fMRI) experiments to study human cognition
Introduction to the preprocessing and analysis software tools used to analyze neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging data used in the labs of participating instructors.

Technical courses V: Methodological approaches in Neuroscience, Experimental animal models in Neuroscienc

Description:

This is an intensive lecture course focused on popular experimental models used on Neurobiological research. The course aims to explore the main attributes of various experimental systems that makes them suitable to or preferable to address particular types of questions and the depth and generality of answers thus obtained.

Course Overview

Interdisciplinary approach to functional neurobiology and its tools including transgenics, RNA interference, particular usefulness and contributions of selected model systems.

Each system will be examined/presented along the following axes:

Models will include

Detailed syllabus

Advantages, uses, transfections

Models and examples for Neurochemistry, cultured systems as discovery tools

Advantages for Neurobiological research, transgenics, RNAi

Signaling, aging, disease models

Advantages for Neurobiological research, transgenics, tools

Neurogenetics, sensory and cognitive models

Cognitive and neurodegenerative disease models, pharmacogenetics

Advantages for Neurobiological research, transgenics

Cognitive models and methods, neuropharmacology

Neurodegenerative models and applications

Rat models, cognitive and neuropharmacology models

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

A/A	TECHNICAL COURSES: Neuro-Imaging, Animal models	Lecturers
1	Animal models of stress and anxiety	Antonis Stamatakis
2	Basic concepts of Behavioral Neuroscience	Irini Skaliora
3	Assessment of cognitive and motor function in rodent models	Alexia Polissidis
4	Human Neuroimaging methods. EEG/MEG, PET/SPECT Imaging	N. Smyrnis
5	fMRI Imaging	N. Smyrnis
6	Light Fluorescence Microscopy: Basic theory and Modern Techniques. Advanced techniques , FLIM-FRET, FRAP	S. Pagakis
7	C-elegans as experimental models in neuroscience	Konstantionos Palikaras
8	The drosophila model for studying neurodevelopment, learning and memory. Drosophila Models for studying cognitive and neurodegenerative diseases	M. Skoulakis
9	IMAGING: In vivo optical animal imaging (fluorescence / luminescence). Advanced imaging techniques- Light Sheet microscopy (SPIM)	V. Kostourou
10	Introduction in experimental models in neuroscience. Rodents as experimental models in neuroscience	Spiros Georgopoulos
11	Image Analysis: Extracting quantitative information from fluorescence microscopy images. Software presentation: Neurolucida/ImageJ	S. Pagakis
12	IMAGING: Advanced imaging applications in the CNS of living animals: Multiphoton confocal microscopy, Calcium imaging at whole animal level, Optogenetics. Data analysis with Imaris and ICY	D. Thomaidou

Computational Neuroscience

dmhsupport — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 10:27:21 +0000

Teaching hours and weekly schedule

This is a 2^nd semester elective course of about 2.5 weeks that corresponds to 4 ECTs and 31 total hours of teaching including student presentations.

Co-ordinators

Assistant Professor of Neurophysiology, Laboratory of Physiology, Department of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Affiliated Researcher, FORTH, Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, UK

Description:

This course provides an introduction to basic computational methods for understanding what nervous systems do and for determining how they function. We will explore the computational principles governing neural function from the single neuron to the neural network level. Specific topics will cover synaptic plasticity, learning and memory in the brain. We will make use of C++/Matlab/NEURON demonstrations and exercises to gain a deeper understanding of concepts and methods introduced in the course. The course is aimed to students of all ages eager to learn how the brain processes information.

Course Overview

Computational neuroscience is the intersection of neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, mathematical modeling and computer science. Its primary target is to describe how the brain “computes” by simplifying neuronal biology to a set of equations. As most branches of Science, it contains elements of Philosophy and Art. Emphasis will be given on mathematical descriptions and computational techniques used to study and understand neurons and network of neurons. Weekly assignments will allow students to learn through direct experience. The course will provide a glimpse of this exciting field aiming to motivate the young mind by covering the following topics:

Mathematical modeling in neurophysiology. An introduction.
Classical, membrane potential theory
Electrical analogue of the cell membrane – The Lapique model (Leaky Integrate and Fire)
Action potential theory. The Hodgkin – Huxley model
Cable theory, multi-compartmental single neuron model
Models of synaptic transmission (AMPA, NMDA, GABAA, GABAB)
Models of synaptic plasticity (LTP/LTD, STDP, Hebbian, Delta rule, backpropagation, etc)
Models of neural networks (feedforward, feedback, competitive, etc)
Computational tools (NEURON and MATLAB)

Skills and Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Titles of lectures and names of the lecturers

Computational Neuroscience	Lecturers
Co-ordinators: Stratos Kosmidis, Vasilis Cutsuridis	Lecturers
Math foundations	Ioannis Dellis (Leeds)
Neural data analysis	Ioannis Dellis
Intro to neyrophys	Stratos Kosmidis (AUTH)
Conductance based neuron models	Stratos Kosmidis
Minimal neuron models	Stratos Kosmidis
Synaptic models	Vassilis Cutsuridis (UoL)
Network models	Vassilis Cutsuridis
Synaptic plasticity models	Vassilis Cutsuridis
Models of dendrites	Nassi Papoutsi/Spiros Chavlis (FORTH)