Live Chat #4: Imaging the Brain: Visualizing structure and function in the CNS Discussion, March 7, 1 p.m. EST

[ccheatham]

Join a discussion led by Fellows who attended the 2015 UNAM course.

[damaris_ayala_22]

I cannot see the link for connection.

[Maria A. González-González]

Hello!! I´m very curious to know how was the experience of people who attended the LATP at UNAM, to be an associate for me has been a good opportunity to met new scientiffic comunity and interchange new ideas.

[eva_ramos]

Damaris, me neither…

[ccheatham]

@damaris_ayala_22 the chat starts in 11 minutes. That is when you will see a discussion. You are in the correct location for the discussion.

[erzimmer]

Hi Cynthia. Thanks for your reply!

[ccheatham]

Happy to provide the information!

[cebacio]

Hello everyone,

My name is Cesar, one of the attendees of LATP 2015 in Queretaro.
First, I would like to thanks everyone interested in this chat. Getting to know the community is always interesting.

[amendez86]

Hey! Andrés here from Uruguay. I also attended LATP in Queretaro in 2015.

[cebacio]

Andres and I have seen the program for the next course this year. We realized it is based on themes rather than on methods. The course in Queretaro was mainly focused on brain imaging techniques, covering a really wide range of imaging methods. I don’t know if any of you saw the classes, but they were sort divided by type of image and “equipment used” to ease the hands on parts. This focus on the technique ended up putting us with a big diversity of research themes in the course, which was very enriching. Although they were not necessarily the focus of the lecture, it provided enriching conversations both inside and outside the class. If anyone has any specific before hands we would be happy to start with that.

[Marianne Klein]

Hello Cesar,

Could you tell us a little bit of how was your experience in Mexico and also how it helped you in the development of your career as a neuroscientist, please?

[damaris_ayala_22]

It is starting right now, but I don’t see the link for connection.

[ccheatham]

Hi, I’m not sure what you mean about connection. This is the correct link. There isn’t video or audio. It is the discussion that is happening right now.

[Marcos Aranda]

Hi, my name is Marcos. I’m a LATP 2015 atendee.
Thanks everybody for participate of this chat.

[cebacio]

This question is broad and the answer goes in many directions.

I think the first point is the networking with neuroscientists of many different fields. this sort of makes you thinking of different possibilities of addressing a question. in other words, it expands the way you see your own field. Second, this networking is a professional opportunity for collaborations, post-doc position hunting and so on. I, specifically, work a lot with neuroimaging both in rodents and humans, so this course fitted like a glove to strengthen skills. I knew the basics to program analysis for fMRI for example, and there we covered alternative programs, more analysis etc. This was continuously expanding the perspective of what is possible to do (when you think of your field and what you could do using those techniques).

[Manuel Solino]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if the experience in UNAM changed your research in any way. Have you applied any of the methods learned? Have you stayed in touch with the expert scientists from the course?

[amendez86]

On my behalf, It is difficult to sum up how attending the school helped us in our career. It definetely has to do with being able to have top-class professors who share there experience (convictions but also there own questionings), be able to be in direct contact with advanced technology and to discuss with other ffellows who are going through similar experiences. These, with discussion and talks on other aspects of science such as Ethics and Fraud makes you realize, first-hand, how science is a collaborative experiencei, which really needs of all of us to share experiencei, and be critic with our own and each others work; to really advance forward.

[Maria Bringas]

Hello everyone!!
I’ve seen LATP 2015 in this chat. Could you please share with us a little bit of your experience? For all of you, What do you think was the most interesting issue in the course?

[eva_ramos]

solino_manu:

nce in UNAM changed your research in any way. Have you applied any of the methods learned? Have you stayed in touch with the expert scien

Thank you Cynthia!!!

[danielanovo77]

Hello!! My name is Daniela. I`m cuban and I also attended to the course in Queretaro

[cebacio]

Interesting question,

In my case, yes. right after the course I headed to Mexico City and stayed there for 10 days. I took this opportunity to visit Fatuel Tecuapetla’s lab, he gave the lecture about CLARITY and other clearing methods. In Mexico City, I learned a little bit of how they are doing CLARITY in his lab, I even did clear some brains myself. It was a really good experience.

[thaysbr]

Hi everyone,

First, I am glad to be able to learn from your experiences!

Did the course encourage to think about new approaches in your own research and new collaborations? Did it make easier to understand scientific papers using the techniques studied?

Additionally, what do you think that are the major difficulties in implement more advanced techniques in Latin American research groups? The costs, the need of training or of importation are hindering factors?

[amendez86]

Hi Ma Elena. I tried to sum up some of the general ways in which the course impacted me. Moreover, the method-based nature of the school, not only surprised me (because of the advanced technology) but also made me realize the strong link with other disciplines such as Physics, which let’s us extract information from the brain like in MRI. Queretaro teachers where many of them Mathematics or Physics which was extremely interesting, because it allowed us to really go into complex theoretical aspects of this methods, and their limitations (both practical and theoretical)

[amendez86]

My summary was in a text I wrote in the general discussion (forgot to mention it above)

[Manuel Solino]

Fantastic. I’ve been fantasising about that for some time now. It must’ve been great to be able to get the info first hand with a trained expert to help out if needed.

[danielanovo77]

Well in my case this course changed literally my perspectives. I’m now a PHD student at the University of Buenos Aires and yes, I’m applying some of the knowledge acquired.

[angiesa0135]

Hello everybody, My name is Angelica,I`m from Colombia and I was interested in asking if you help to plan the meeting for the next year, for example, this year in Uruguay, based on their experiences. Thanks a lot for telling us your experiences

[Raul Rodriguez Cruces]

Hi,

My name is Raul, I participated on the LATP 2015 called Imaging the Brain. Besides the enriching experiences of meeting people from all Latinamerica, the topics we approached were ver useful for my research direction. I’m open to discuss about my experience.

Greetings

[Marianne Klein]

I’ve noticed that Cesar for example, had a previous back ground of image techniques. Is there anyone who attended the course that had only a basic knowledge about it? If so, was it easy to follow up with the classes?

[carolvasquez11]

Hi, my name is Carol, I am also a LATP 2015 attendee. During the three weeks of the course we were able to be in direct contact with great neuroscientist that not only showed to us their work, the principles of the techniques and its applications but also they gave us lights of the use of these techniques for developing research strategies. Another crucial point of this experience was the diversity of the students of the course from different parts of Latin America. This allowed to us to discuss about our work in our country, to find our similitudes and strengths in order to establish future collaborations between the region.

[vtramire]

Hi Everyone!
I am Valerie from Chile. For me , that it was a changeing life experience, after the course I decided to start a post doc abroad. Next month I will go to Europe to go on in the next step in my carrer.

[eva_ramos]

danielanovo77:

e changed literally my perspectives.

Other LATP attendees also told me the same, that the course was very useful and focused on the most top and new techniques…what a pity that this year will be more theorical…

[Maria Bringas]

Hi Andres!! Thanks for your reply
That’s true, when I started my master degree the first courses were physics and calculus; at the beginning I thought: Do I really need it? But, of course; all the nature must be studied by Physics-Math-Chemistry. Is good to notice that you enjoyed the course.

[erzimmer]

Hello everyone,

I have been working for a while with PET imaging in small animals. Did you guys have received any background on that?

[gabbo_fry]

Hi everyone , My name is Gabriel from Mexico. LATP 2015 was my first course and I think that was very important because I’m working with fMRI. I agree with Carol about that the diversity of student and our work line was a crucial point.

[Maria A. González-González]

Congratulations Valerie! if last course made you decided to start a post doc abroad… it means that your perspectives had improved !

[cebacio]

regarding collaboration, The opportunity was present in every moment as all lecturers were very open people. I will go far enough to say they go to these courses with an eye on possible staff for their lab, also. So yes in terms of work. it is definitely great. I think Marcos established some collaboration, maybe he can share some of that experience.

Regarding reading papers. Definitely. It makes a lot easier when you know the parameters of the technique that you have to set up and report so it is reproducible.

The last topic was subject of many discussions during lunch time. From what I remember, it is a difficult issue, but not impossible. I remember someone highlighting that a major difficulty in Latin america is the lack of an interactive community. If scientists joined in their research they could add strength to grant proposals and bring more expensive stuff to LA.

[amendez86]

hey! It indeed helps you develop a more integrated approah for further research, specially because you can get closer to each professor, and share your research and ask for their opinions related to their approaches. But Also, it gives you a more critical view ofyour own data and research; including the ability to be critical with th literature you; in its theoretical aspect but also in paying attention to the nature of the magazine, the author affiliations, etc.

[gabbo_fry]

No, in that course we could’t see something about PET. Currently I’m beginning to work with that in nonhuman primates.

[cebacio]

Not PET exactly. I remeber we have a hands on class on DTI and fMARI in rats and humans. But no PET due to the substances needed (I guess)

[Raul Rodriguez Cruces]

I had some knowledge in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging, however all the others topics of imaging analisys were quite new for me. For example most of the topics of immunocytochemistry techniques and analysis were new for me, because even though I had seen the before, it was the first time I did them myself.

[vtramire]

Yes Ale, I am moving to Irealan next month. I realy happy about it. For me the curso was mora like a extra motivation to keep improving in sciene, and to be more open to other tools for the investigation

[amendez86]

It really was, spcecially when some of the new methods are still not understood. They are used, they work, but many aspect of the techniques are still controversial, which made us discuss on the improtance of always keeping in mind what we are measuring.

[erzimmer]

This sounds interesting. Which kind of nonhuman primates? marmosets? rhesus?

[cebacio]

Hi.

I don’t any of us was involved in the 2016 meeting. But I remember that it is a possibility. I remember that the director of the course wanted a professor in Brasil (my country) to be a director at some point and asked me if I could be of any help. In this case I think I would be involved. Lets see.

[amendez86]

The opportunity to discuss this with top professors was really motivating. Science is truly a collaboratory activity and the school reflects it

[Raul Rodriguez Cruces]

And some of the classes were easy to follow and some of them required more attention, but I think that’s normal because of our different backgrounds. However all the professors were very open to any kind of questions, from the simples to the most complicated. I highly recommend this course is a unique experience!

[danielanovo77]

I agree with you Raul

[gabbo_fry]

Cercopitecus aethiops. These NHP are monkeys similar to the rhesus monkeys.
PET isn’t my aim in my project but now we are working with that and I’m learning about it.

[gabbo_fry]

yes, that was very important because we could do a interesting discussion.