The academic committee provides two different types of services for the graduate student community.  The first is the opportunity for graduate students to learn and practice skills required for a future career in academia.  This includes an FAES course on laboratory techniques taught by graduate students as well as an informal course on teaching and learning for graduate students.  The second service is scientific interest groups which give graduate students in similar research fields the chance to meet and interact on a professional level.  For more information about these services scroll down the page.  If you are interested in starting an interest groups in a particular area please contact the GSC co-chairs.

The Introduction to Laboratory Techniques course was held on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7:45 in the Fall Semester 2006.  There were 15 total students, with there being a mix between postbacs and other members of the NIH community.  Twelve of the current graduate students participated in the class by teaching or co-teaching one or two of the weekly lectures.  Overall the class was a great success this semester.  The students were an inquisitive group, asking many good questions of the grad students.  Many of the students gave excellent feedback, mentioning that they learned quite a bit from the lectures. For more information contact GSClabtechcourse@od.nih.gov .

The GSC academic committee was set up to provide a teaching opportunity for NIH graduate students who may be interested in an academic career.  To accomplish this we developed an FAES course "Introduction to Laboratory Techniques", which is geared towards postbacs and is taught by us, the graduate students.  Each lecture will introduce a laboratory technique presented by a graduate student experienced in the technique. The course aims to give graduate students the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of teaching a course and provide a needed course for many postbacs and beginning graduate students on techniques essential for working in the lab.  Potential course topics include (but are not limited to):  DNA/RNA Methods, Electrophoresis, Cell and Tissue Culture Techniques, siRNA, Structural Biology/Crystallography, FACS, Knockout Mice, Infectious Disease, Microarrays, Computational Techniques, Immunohistochemistry, Magnetic Resonance and PET Imaging, Neuropsychological Testing.  For more information on this committee contact GSClabtechcourse@od.nih.gov.

Course Description:

BIOL 262
Fall, 2 credits
Introduction to Laboratory Techniques
This course is designed to provide a broad base of knowledge concerning essential laboratory techniques. The following topics will be addressed: tissue/cell culture, electrophoresis, development of knockout mice, bacteriology and infectious disease, DNA/RNA methods, microarrys, immunohistochemistry, imaging, neuropsychological testing, and computational biology techniques. Our hour of lecture on the basic principles of each technique will be followed by an in-depth discussion of landmark and current literature utilizing this specific laboratory technique. These discussions will follow a journal-club style format to facilitate class participation. The course is aimed to provide postbaccalureate trainees, new graduate students, and other persons seeking an overview of laboratory methods with the necessary background to be competent and productive in a laboratory environment.

Prerequisites: Undergraduate biology and chemistry.

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Biophysics and Structural Biology Graduate Student Interest Group (BSBIG)

Aims:

• To create a forum where graduate students conducting research at the NIH that involve structural biology techniques can discuss current issues/trends in structural biology 
•  To introduce other graduate students/post-bacs/researchers to structural biology techniques and learn how they are used to address biological questions
•  To hear from researchers who develop structural biology techniques and/or use structural biology techniques to address biological questions
•  To create a resource for graduate students who might be interested in applying structural biology techniques by providing contact information for those who are familiar with structural biology

Format:
Meeting days: 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month
Location: Graduate Student Lounge or Conference Room, Bldg. 50, 3rd Fl.
Meeting time: 1 PM
First Meeting:
Introduction and discussion on the technical aspects of a structural biology technique (~ 45 minutes), followed by a brief presentation of the presenting student’s research (~10-15 minutes)
Second Meeting:
Discussion of a scientific paper which uses the aforementioned technique to address a biological question, with the focus of the discussion on the biological system being addressed and the advantages/limitations of the structural biology technique in use.  As the Interest Group progresses, we will invite speakers and possibly give brief laboratory tours so that students can see the instrumentation in person.

Starter list of Structural Biology Techniques:
Mass Spectrometry
Electron Microscopy (includes Cryo-EM and Tomography)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
X-ray Crystallography
Bioinformatics and Molecular Modeling
Confocal and two-photon microscopy (includes FRET, immunohistochemistry)
 Microarray Technologies (includes AffyMetrix, DNA/RNA/Protein arrays)
If interested in becoming involved, please contact GSCstructbiol@od.nih.gov .

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Systems Neuroscience Interest Group - SNIG

The Systems Neuroscience Interest Group (SNIG) for Graduate Students is composed of members from all fields of Neuroscience and from many different institutes- all with a general interest in neuroscience at the systems level. SNIG is a student run interest group dedicated to building and maintaining a community for Neuroscience graduate students to interact and share ideas and information. Participants come from many research backgrounds including Neuroimaging, Neurophysiology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Computational Neuroscience, etc.

SNIG provides the following:

Monthly Meetings – each month a graduate student presents either their own research or a research article. The atmosphere of presenting to peers gives the speaker an opportunity to practice in a low stress environment but also gives the students attending a great opportunity to learn about the topic and ask questions that they may not have felt comfortable asking in the more traditional presentation setting.

Speaker Lunches – SNIG has had the opportunity to host a few distinguished speakers for lunch in the past, with the help of the GPP. Past notable speaker lunches have included Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, Dr. Nikos Logothetis, Dr. Ralph Adolphs, and Dr. George Augustine. All speakers were chosen by SNIG students.

The SNIG listserve – We maintain a listserve of student members where the SNIG coordinator sends an announcement of potentially interesting talks around campus every 1-2 weeks.

We want to continue to build our community and welcome all new members as well as ideas on how to further foster interaction amongst Neuroscience students.

If you are interested in joining SNIG or have any questions please email GSCsnig@od.nih.gov