Biology 388 - Neurobio & Physiology Lab

This laboratory course employs zebrafish embryos and larvae to examine the molecular mechanisms that underlie brain development and growth. As a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) students conduct real scientific research aimed at addressing unanswered questions in neurodevelopment, including the regulation of neural stem cells and how physiological/environmental challenges might affect stem cell proliferation and post-embryonic brain growth. Students help refine their experimental questions, generate hypotheses and experimental predictions, design and conduct in vivo experiments, quantify cell proliferation rates in the brain under different experimental conditions, and convey their results through written and oral presentations. Students learn a variety of lab skills needed to perform these experiments, including treating zebrafish larvae with different chemical compounds, brain dissection, cell proliferation assays, fluorescence microscopy, and image analysis. Students will also examine a transgenic zebrafish reporter lines to gain an understanding of the distribution and complexity of neuronal cell types within the vertebrate brain.

This course is open to BIOLOGY majors only. BIOLOGY 285 or 288 Additional fees are associated with this section.