Activities of the IAC-USNC and Selected Links to International Neuroscience

1- Regional Workshops
The Committee organizes regional workshops in developing countries, led by prominent neuroscientists and focusing on key areas of basic or clinical neuroscience. The workshops are aimed at teaching and inspiring students, as well as creating personal ties between North American scientists and their counterparts in developing countries.

Teaching Tools School & Workshop in Neuroscience June 30 - July 3 in Dakar, Senegal. The US/Canada Regional Committee is holding the First Teaching Tools School and Workshop to be held at the University of Dakar, Senegal, June 30-July 3, 2008.

The intent of the organizers is to provide tools and a framework for teaching Neuroscience in African countries. Given that there are several paths of neuroscience education in Africa, we will present stand-alone basic neuroscience modules that can be integrated by teachers into a variety of curricula and into various teaching contexts.

The objective of the program described here is to develop stand-alone teaching modules on several specific topics, with the hope that the program can form the basis for future efforts on other subjects. The topics of this first effort will revolve around the basic science aspects of "Peripheral Neuropathy" and "Degenerative Disease" with a focus on Parkinson's Disease and Dementia. Themes to be covered include organization of the spinal cord and sensorimotor pathways, nerve conduction, action potentials, organization of higher centers mediating motor behavior, plus other related topics. We will also discuss methods of teaching and engaging students.

The school course and content is designed for junior faculty members who are currently involved in teaching Neuroscience/Neuroanatomy/Neurophsyiology or a related discipline. For example, we expect the materials will be most useful to university faculty who have been teaching in a Neuroscience related field for about five years or less.

*This workshop is organized by the US/Canada regional committee of IBRO (IAC-USNC, www.iac-usnc.org and SONA). The IAC-USNC is a joint effort of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), the Society for Neuroscience, and the US National Academies. Financial support for the IAC-USNC and this workshop is provided National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, the Society for Neuroscience, and IBRO.

Course on Neurodegeneration July 10-12, 2007, in conjunction with the IBRO Congress in Melbourne, Australia (July 12-17, 2007).

Neural Systems and Behavior Course, modeled after the same course at MBL. Organized by Dr. Janice Weeks.
July 1-9, 2006, University of Cape Town. South Africa

Brain-Environment Interactions Course; June26-July 8, 2005, Maricabo and Merida, Venezuela

The Neurobiology of Epilepsy; September 19-20, 2004, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Basic Neuroscience; June 23-26, 2003, Hanoi, Vietnam. Lead by Committee member Dr. Mark Rasenic. Instructors included Committee member Michael Bennett and neuroscientists Alison Hall, Susanne Zukin, Louis Reichardt, and Japanese neuroscientist Ichiro Fujita

A Short Course on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory:
October 14-18, 2002, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
October 21-22, 2002, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Taught by Drs. Sarah Newman, University of Michigan, and Tim DeVoogd, Cornell University

Note that IBRO hosts MANY other courses (called "Neuroscience Schools") throughout the year in various regions of the world. Go to www.ibro.org and click on "education and training" in the menu bar on the left.

2- Travel Assistance to SfN Meeting

The Society for Neuroscience, via the IAC-USNC, and IBRO supports a limited number of travel fellowships for young neuroscientists from developing nations to attend the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Go to the Fellowships page for more information.

North American students may apply for travel assistance to attend and present their work at the IBRO Congress or Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forums. Contact either of the Committee's staff for information (Marilee Shelton-Davenport

or Charyl Delaney

)

3- Fellowships to MBL and CSHL (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories) Summer Courses
The committee has fellowship support for students from developing nations accepted into the neuroscience-related courses at the Marine Biological Laboratory (http://www.mbl.edu) and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (http://www.cshl.edu). Go to our Fellowships page for basic information and to the MBL-CSHL Course Fellowships page for detailed information about applying to summer programs at both Laboratories. Application deadlines for the different courses vary, but can be as early as February.
Students accepted into an MBL or CSHL course under this program also receive a travel fellowship to the SfN national meeting (if they present an abstract); orientation to the SfN meeting; mentor matching at the SfN meeting; complementary meeting registration; professional development or short course programs; and complementary SfN membership for 2 years. The next deadline is February 1, 2008.

4- On-Line Neurobiology of Disease Lectures
In 2003 the IAC-USNC began posting on this website slides and audio recordings from the annual "Neurobiology of Disease" course given during the SfN national meeting. The NDW course, as it's called, is an annual event at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, each year addressing a different topic. See the Web Lectures page for more information and links to the lectures. Scientists in developing regions of the globe can request lecture sets on CD. Please email the webmaster for more information and to receive a CD. Please remember to include your mailing address in your request.

Before the IAC-USNC began posting the NDW talks, it created a "web symposium" just for this website, entitled "The Neurobiology of Stress, Fear and Anxiety".

5- Methods in Neuroscience
The committee has developed a small set of web pages that review some methods/techniques commonly used in neuroscience research. These pages will not be able to teach you every aspect of a method or technique, but we hope these pages will help you become familiar with various techniques so you can better understand the techniques as you read the literature. Go to the Methods page for more information.

6- Free Journals
We are delighted to be able to help get the word out that the Journal of Neuroscience and PNAS are now available FREE in some countries - see HERE for more information and a list of countries that have free access.

Selected LINKS

From Columbia University: The 29th Annual Basic and Clinical Neurosciences Postgraduate Review Course
We invite you to take advantage of a valuable educational program that showcases the breadth and strength of neuroscience at Columbia. With a generous unrestricted educational grant from Lundbeck, Columbia is able to offer videotaped lectures from the 2006-2007 Basic and Clinical Neurosciences Postgraduate Review Course. The site also has transcripts from the lectures, held from December 2, 2006, through March 10, 2007, and lists references and resources for further review. Videotaped lectures are available by distinguished faculty members from the departments of Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Psychiatry, Radiology, Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Pharmacology, Physiology and Cellular Biophysics. Areas covered range from neuroregeneration, neurorepair and plasticity, cognition and behavior, mood and motivation, and the integration of bodily functions through the autonomic nervous system. The lecturers discuss how we regulate heart rate, appetite, obesity, and other aspects of metabolic and unconscious function.
From the University of Pennsylvania: Graduate lectures in Neurobiology of Disease We invite you to view the lectures from our graduate courses in the Neurobiology of Disease, made possible by a grant from NIH. New lectures will be uploaded weekly during the second half of the spring semesters (northern hemisphere) of 2008, so check back often to view this new material, which will be on the interactions between the nervous and immune systems. The site contains a video of each lecture, as well as the option of viewing the slides only. Currently (November, 2007), lectures are available from the Neurobiology of Disease overview course, and from specialized 1/2 semester courses in Mechanisms of Neural Injury and Protection; Mechanisms of Neural Recovery and Regeneration; and Neurodegenerative Diseases II (which covers many genetic neurodegenerative diseases), Stress and Substance Abuse; Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Lectures from the course "Pathophysiology of Neuroinflammation and Infection in the CNS" will be posted during March and April of 2008.
The Human Frontier Science Program HFSP promotes international collaboration in interdisciplinary, basic research in the life sciences. The fields supported are Brain Functions and Molecular Approaches to Biological Functions. Particular emphasis is now placed on bringing scientists from fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering together with biologists to open up new approaches to understanding complex biological systems.
International Council for Science ICSU is a non-governmental organization, founded in 1931 to bring together natural scientists in international scientific endeavour. It comprises 98 multi-disciplinary National Scientific Members (scientific research councils or science academies) and 26 international, single-discipline Scientific Unions to provide a wide spectrum of scientific expertise enabling members to address major international, interdisciplinary issues which none could handle alone.
World Health Organization The objective of WHO is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health, as defined in the WHO Constitution, is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Distance learning updates from The Chronicle of Higher Education The Chronicle's webpage of distance learning news, information about various distance learning programs and updates about progress and recent thinking in the distance learning field.

Activities with People	Activities on the Web
1- Regional Workshops 2- Travel assistance to SFN meeting 3- Fellowships to MBL and CSHL	4- "Neurobiology of Disease" Lectures 5- Neuro-Methods 6- Free Journals 7- Links to related & interesting sites

Please note: This page lists ALL Committee activities. Many of these activities are explained in greater detail on other pages on this site. Links are provided below.