Coming back to my last semester of my last year of Master’s in Neurobiology, today I will talk about memory and in particular about the first pioneer studies by the neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Erik Kandel, that wanted to study memory from a neurophysiological point of view and that demonstrated how learning leaves traces in… Continue reading How did we start to study memory?
Category: University years
How is Coca-Cola using Pavlovian conditioning?
In March 2015 I finally started my last semester of the Master´s in Neurobiology. Courses-wise, the semester was actually not so intense, we just had two courses, but I finally got repaid of all the efforts I had to put into getting myself around Physics, Neurophysiology and some not-so-nice professors: I was eventually connecting all… Continue reading How is Coca-Cola using Pavlovian conditioning?
What is a prion?
After the last few posts about my Neurobiology Master’s thesis, today I would like to follow up on the story of how I ended up doing a PhD in Germany and I will write about the first semester of my second and last year of Master’s. After that pretty hard first year, where I realized… Continue reading What is a prion?
What is the qRT-PCR?
Today I will briefly present to you the quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) that I used for my master thesis to verify the genic expression of some genes of interest (such as c-FOS, a marker gene for neuronal activation, or CGRP, have a look here for a brief explanation of why I elected… Continue reading What is the qRT-PCR?
How did I study the effects of KYNA on migraine?
As I have anticipated last week (have a look here to figure out some of the new therapeutic targets for migraine), the main character of my master thesis in Neurobiology is the kynurenic acid (KYNA), one of the neuroactive compounds produced during the metabolism of tryptophan, an amino acid used in the biosynthesis of proteins.… Continue reading How did I study the effects of KYNA on migraine?
Which are the new therapeutic targets for migraine?
Since last week I started talking about the most common drugs used to treat the migraine symptoms, this week I would like to talk about the new targets that are started to be addressed for the treatment of migraine. As a matter of fact, thanks to the most recent intuitions on the aetiology of migraine,… Continue reading Which are the new therapeutic targets for migraine?
What is migraine?
For this week's post I decided it is time to go back to the story of how I ended up doing a PhD in Germany and I will start talking about my Neurobiology master thesis, outlining in the SRF the medical problem that lead researchers, and my lab, working on it. By the beginning of… Continue reading What is migraine?
How do benzodiazepines work?
Another very interesting course that I attended during my first year of Neurobiology Master‘s was the one called “Neurochemistry and Neuropharmacology”. During this course, we finally started studying the different chemicals, called neurotransmitters, produced by neurons in the nervous system. As I have already written in an old post, neurons communicate through electricity and chemical… Continue reading How do benzodiazepines work?
Why do we say “hawk-eyed”?
As I have already anticipated last week, the differences in the central nervous system (CNS) among vertebrates was a very interesting course, so today I would like to talk about a byword for visual acuity, “hawk-eyed”, and why it is known that birds see better than humans. We use the catchword “hawk-eyed” as an adjective… Continue reading Why do we say “hawk-eyed”?
Where is adult neurogenesis happening?
During my first year of Master’s degree in Neurobiology I had to face quite some striking challenges, that started already during the first semester. I actually had to go back to Physics and this time try to really understand it and apply it to what I have always wanted to study: the brain. As I… Continue reading Where is adult neurogenesis happening?
