Course overview
Cancer neuroscience represents an interdisciplinary field at the forefront of cancer research, seamlessly combining insights from neurobiology and oncology. The intricate interplay between the nervous system and cancer has yielded profound insights into the mechanisms of tumor progression and the tumor microenvironment. The latter, comprising neuro-glial, immune, and endothelial networks, has been identified as a critical determinant of cancer growth and metastasis.
Cutting-edge technologies inspired by the neuroscience field are transforming our ability to study brain cancers from a neural perspective. This course will enable students to integrate theoretical and methodological concepts in neuro-oncology, combining modern neuroscience approaches with hands-on experience in state-of-the-art methodologies. The course provides an integrated understanding of the crosstalk between neuro-oncology and neuroscience.
Course Directors
Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg
University of Bordeaux, France
Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Keynote Speakers
Will be announced soon!
Instructors
Course Content and Techniques
Cancer progression in the brain
- Orthotopic model of brain cancer or brain metastasis
- Tissue clearing
- Brain cancer models on slices
Crosstalk of tumor cells with neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and endothelial cells
- Intra-vital microscopy
- High resolution confocal/expansion microscopy
- SUper-resolution SHadow Imaging
- Co-culture of cancer cells and primary mouse brain cells/organoids/brain slices
- Transcriptomics
- Image analysis
Neurogliomal synapses
- Calcium imaging and analysis
- Patch clamp electrophysiology
Metabolic exchanges tumor-healthy tissue
- High resolution respirometry
- Extracellular acidification rate
- Membrane potential and ROS detection
- Metabolic analysis using liquid chromatography
Brain cancer and immune system
- Isolation of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes by immunomagnetic selection and FACS sorting
- Immunophenotyping of cancer cells and analysis of the intratumoral immunosuppressive
- microenvironment using flow cytometry
- Assessment of cytotoxic and immune activity of effector cells on tumor target cells by flow cytometry
Therapeutic strategies in brain tumors
- Surgical resection models
Bordeaux School of Neuroscience, France
The Bordeaux School of Neuroscience is part of Bordeaux Neurocampus, the Neuroscience Department of the University of Bordeaux. Christophe Mulle, its current director, founded it in 2015. Throughout the year, renowned scientists, promising young researchers and many students from any geographical horizon come to the School.
The school works on this principle: training in neuroscience research through experimental practice, within the framework of a real research laboratory.
Facilities
Their dedicated laboratory (500m2), available for about 20 trainees, is equipped with a wet lab, an in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology room, IT facilities, a standard cellular imaging room, an animal facility equipped for behavior studies and surgery and catering/meeting spaces. They also have access to high-level core facilities within the University of Bordeaux. They offer their services to international training teams who wish to organize courses in all fields of neuroscience thanks to a dedicated staff for the full logistics (travels, accommodation, on-site catering, social events) and administration and 2 scientific managers in support of the experimentation.
Registration
Fee : 3.950 € (includes tuition fee, accommodation and meals)
Applications will open soon!
The CAJAL programme offers 4 stipends per course (waived registration fee, not including travel expenses). Please apply through the course online application form. In order to identify candidates in real need of a stipend, any grant applicant is encouraged to first request funds from their lab, institution or government.
Kindly note that if you benefited from a Cajal stipend in the past, you are no longer eligible to receive this kind of funding. However other types of funding (such as partial travel grants from sponsors) might be made available after the participants selection pro- cess, depending on the course.
