For Brown University Students, MBL is a 'Magical Science Space' | Brown University News

Graduate students from Brown University headed to the MBL for NeuroPracticum91บฃฝวยายืan immersive eight-day workshop where students gain hands-on neuroscience experience.
Meghan Gonsalves, a first-year neuroscience graduate student at Brown University, spends most of her time studying imaging techniques used to measure brain activity in humans. So when she was asked to dissect the brain of a fruit fly 91บฃฝวยายื which is roughly the size of a poppy seed 91บฃฝวยายื she thought she wouldn91บฃฝวยายืt be able to do it.
By later on the same January day, Gonsalves found herself gazing in awe at a video of a glowing fly brain. She had stained and imaged the brain using a confocal microscope to visualize neurons that affect fly behavior.
91บฃฝวยายืTo be able to manipulate your data through a microscope is pretty crazy,91บฃฝวยายื said Gonsalves, who holds both bachelor91บฃฝวยายืs and master91บฃฝวยายืs degrees from Brown as well. 91บฃฝวยายืI was really nervous doing this because I91บฃฝวยายืm computational/behavioral-oriented. This shows I91บฃฝวยายืm capable of doing more than I thought I was capable of.91บฃฝวยายื

Professor of Neuroscience Anne Hart talks with first-year graduate students during last year91บฃฝวยายืs NeuroPracticum. Photo by Nick Dentamaro/Brown University
Gonsalves gained that experience as one of 19 first-year students in Brown91บฃฝวยายืs neuroscience graduate program who participated in NeuroPracticum, an immersive workshop with hands-on rotations held in January at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
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