We know about the bugs that light up our world: fireflies obviously, glow worms, of course... but fruit fly larvae? It's true. There's a larva lamp wriggling its way into your fruit.
And students at the“果蝇神经生物学：基因，电路和行为”course at the prestigiousCold Spring Harbor Laboratoryin New York State are shining a light on these larvae - literally - as they explore new tools and techniques for usingDrosophilaas an experimental system for nervous system investigation.
Fruit flies –Drosophila- are important as models for scientists because many of their genes are conserved in humans. Of the genes that mutate to cause diseases in humans, around 75% have similar equivalents in fruit flies.
ButDrosophilalarvae are also interesting to researchers because ways to remotely control and measure neural activity with light can be installed in parts of their nervous system. Researchers can then engineer these neurons to express a modified version of green fluorescent protein which is sensitive to intracellular calcium. When calcium levels inside the neuron go up, the protein fluoresces more brightly. Since calcium levels typically go up when neurons become active, such genetically encoded calcium indicators can be used to optically image activity in populations of neurons.
课程讲师，Stefan Pulver，英国圣安德鲁斯大学神经科学的讲师，利用这项技术来研究运动的神经控制果蝇。在圣安德鲁斯,支持从theMcCall Macbain基金会, Stefan has also been working to adapt this research technology for use in classroom settings.
“One of the advantages of our system is that we can easily image activity patterns in rhythmically active circuits controlling locomotion in both the research lab and the teaching lab. This is the thing we do at Cold Spring Harbor - we do live imaging of neural activity in central pattern generating networks, using LabChart’sVideo Capture Module。”
With Stefan’s guidance, students on theDrosophilaNeurobiology course use flies in which neurons have been engineered to light up when they are active, using light to image the activity of thousands of neurons in aDrosophilalarva at once.
Stefan Pulver和使用LabChart的视频捕获模块的学生在A中图像神经活动Drosophilalarva
Stefan says that theDrosophila神经生物学课程是独一无二的Drosophila研究与教学。
“It really is the best course to learn aboutDrosophilaneurobiology in a short amount of time - it's like a boot camp. And what’s really cool is that while there's the teaching element to it, we also bring in the bestDrosophila世界上的研究人员来谈论他们的研究。教学和研究的混合确实是有趣和协同的。学生了解新类型的研究并尝试实验 - 其中一些可能从未做过。因此，这不像传统的教室 - 就像一个运转良好的研究实验室。”
尖端课程使学生了解了各种各样的主题和技术，包括研究神经系统发展，活动和连通性以及复杂行为和疾病模型的最新方法。
A huge practical benefit of the course is that students have the chance to try out a variety of equipment from a range of providers. It’s a useful – and rare – opportunity to see which systems might be the best fit for their specificDrosophilaresearch.
ADInstruments are proud to be one of the companies who support the course, providing sixPowerLabs用于实验室会议期间的数据采集。Stefan Pulver使用ldsports体育资讯 和Video Captureto demonstrate an optogenetic methodology.
该课程的动手部分以基于询问的项目为中心，利用在课程中学到的不同的形态和生理测量以及行为范式。这包括分子遗传学分析，免疫细胞化学，使用电生理学和遗传编码的钙指标记录活性，神经活动的光遗传学和热遗传学控制以及许多定量行为测量。总的来说，该课程为研究现代实验方法提供了全面而实用的介绍，以研究行为的神经基础Drosophila.
Attendees at the course benefit from 4 instructors and over 20 international speakers who contribute their knowledge and expertise over its 3-week duration.
我们期待听到更多有关学生未来研究的信息Drosophilalarvae!
Find out more about the ‘Drosophila Neurobiology: Genes, Circuits & Behavior’ course这里和more about ADInstruments for Researchersld乐动官方 .
About Cold Spring Harbor Lab
Founded in 1890,Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory是领先的国际研究和教育中心。ld乐动体育I网址每年，作为其任务的一部分，实验室都会与来自世界各地的组织者，教练和参与者组织25个科学会议，20次班伯里中心会议以及30个高级技术科学课程。
