Day 9

Today we toured the Neurosciences Research Lab.

Vangelis Antzoulatos gave us a brief overview of the lab and how researchers are using Aplysia californica, a sea slug, to study brain functions.

Dr. Gregg Phares then showed us the internal and external anatomy of an Aplysia slug, highlighting the neurons, and demonstrated why the extremely large, almost visible neurons, of the slug are useful to researchers.

Dr. Phares then showed us his personal research, in which electrodes were introduced directly into the neurons. Through electrical enhancement, the "firing" of the neurons was both audible and graphed on a computer (electrophysiology).

Diasinou Fioravante then took us to see a cultured neuron in her lab, and demonstrated her research. She also took us on a tour of the various laser microscopes that the lab uses to see individual cells and how they interact.

Vangelis then returned and continued the tour of several more working labs, including one in which we got to observe a stained cell.

In the last activity of the day, Louise Cosand introduced us to L.E.A.R.N. (a high school neurobiology program) which will eventually have downloadable modules directly from the web. We got to participate in one activity, in which dominoes and marbles are used to demonstrate neurons and synapses.