Aim of the school
The European Synapse Summer School aims at combining theoretical and practical training. Methodological and goal-oriented training are achieved by guiding the students through hands-on experiments within the frame of short scientific projects. In addition, the school promotes interactions between students and highly renowned scientists and offers conditions to stimulate students' discussion on lectures and laboratory experiences The central topic of the school is on synaptic structure and physiology in network activity and higher brain functions.


Importance of the scientific area of the proposed project
The study of synaptic function and plasticity is fundamental to our understanding of how the brain works. Despite notable progress , much remains to be determined with respect to the molecular and cellular mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity. It also remains unclear how synaptic function integrates information from tens of thousands of inputs to allow proper brain functioning.
Increasingly, the strength of research programs in neuroscience depends on a multi-level and multidisciplinary approach. Technological innovation and the interweaving of a variety of approaches including molecular, cellular, network, and system investigations are essential for substantial advances in neuroscientific knowledge.
Therefore, neuroscience research in general and synaptic research in particular require the training of talented and skilled new scientists to meet the conceptual and technical challenges posed by the increasingly sophisticated techniques needed to address these issues.
We organise the European Synapse Summer School of Bordeaux as a regular training event in Europe, every other year, hopefully as a FENS-IBRO Training Centre. We will thus seek support from the FENS-IBRO program for each edition. The regularity of this training event has appeared essential as many European students have already been enquiring about future editions, and we feel that our collective expertise is steadily increasing for the benefit of young European scientists.
As for previous editions, a special focus will be given in order to embrace a large number of analysis levels and techniques over the years. For the 2013 edition, the focus will be on "Synapses and neural circuits".

Overview of the training program for 2013

The school comprises
- lectures on theoretical and methodological aspects. The lectures are distributed over the three weeks at the rate of two per morning, three times a week.
- lectures on paper writing and ethics. The participants will have the opportunity to meet the Editor of a high profile journal in neuroscience research to discuss about how to write a paper. Besides, it is important to discuss ethical questions in our field. We will thus ask the CARE advice on whom to invite to give a lecture on this topic.
- a workshop on cellular imaging organised by the Bordeaux Imaging Centre. A two-day practical including theoretical and practical training on innovative and sophisticated cellular imaging is held for groups of 4-5 students.
- hands-on experiments within the frame of 3-week projects. Ten or twelve pairs of students work on practical projects on predefined scientific questions in the field of synaptic research (lists of mini-projects of previous editions are available on the website, www.escube.u-bordeaux2.fr). This practical training takes place in different workstations of the Institute. The mini-projects last three weeks and attempt to address different methodological aspects:
• first week: molecular and cellular biology, morphology/anatomy
• second week: cellular electrophysiology
• third week: imaging and/or integrated approaches like behavioural analyses, networks and neurocomputation.


Program of a day
•9 am -1 pm: Seminars with two speakers innovative and advanced methodology, latest results in the field of neurosciences or ethics. A student will introduce each speaker and will also be in charge of organizing the successive lunch discussion.
•1 pm - 2 pm lunch at the University with the invited speakers of the day.
•2 pm - 6 pm Practical project, by pairs, under the supervision of a one or two tutors
•Evening events: poster sessions, general discussion of the projects by small groups, or social event(see calendar)
•Twice a week, from 6 pm to 8 pm: discussion and progress reports of the projects, with instructors and with speakers present. The meeting is followed by a buffet with students, local faculty and speakers.

Milestone days
•On week 1 and 2, a poster session (at least 2 hours)is organized for the students to present their data to the instructors and speakers present. This followed by a buffet with students, local faculty and speakers.
•On week 1 and 2, two half a day are dedicated to cellular imaging techniques, with technical courses and demonstrations on the work stations of the Bordeaux Imaging Center.
•Soft skills: ins and outs of publication in high profile journals (in 2013, we plan to invite the Editor of Nature Neuroscience).
•On week 1, lecture with a member of CARE (Committee on Animal Research and on Ethics) on Ethics
•On the last friday, students give a formal presentation of the results of day mini-projects obtained over day three weeks.
•Social event are organized on Saturdays, in Bordeaux or in the surroundings, and a farewell dinner closes the school on the last friday.

Selection of students
20-24 students (mid-term PhD students to young post-docs) will be selected according to the guidelines.
The final list of the selected students will then be submitted to the liaison officer for approval.
Equal opportunity and Gender balance
The Bordeaux Training Centre encourages young and female scientists to pursue their career in Neurosciences. Indeed, as in our organising committee and in our list of speakers, we will encourage young female scientists to enrol and participate to the School.
Besides, the participation of students from Central and Eastern Europe will also be encouraged and one third of the positions will be reserved to them and they will be exempt from registration fees.

Student activities
Students will be involved in the activities of the school regularly and at different stages.Thje participations of the students is described in the program.

Introduction of seminar speakers and lunch
Each student is in charge of introducing the talk of one of the speakers. They know in advance before the School who they should introduce, and are given the opportunity to look for their career achievements and to contact them to learn more about their research activities. The students who have introduced the morning speakers are in charge of taking them to lunch at the cafeteria with other voluntary students. The faculty is not present, so as to give a better opportunity for the students to question the morning lecturers in an informal manner.

Poster sessions
Students will be invited to present a poster with their research activity, because we feel it is important for them to discuss about their scientific project with other faculty members. Two poster sessions are organised in the evening on the 1st and 2nd Monday, at the occasion of a buffet dinner.

Practical courses
The main participation of students is in the practical courses, where the students will perform experiments under the supervision of skilled scientists as tutors (advanced PhD students, post-docs, group leaders). These experiments will cover a large range of techniques in the field of molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiological techniques, in imaging techniques, behaviour and neurocomputation. The students will thus learn techniques by performing experiments. In order to analyse data, prepare intermediate and final reports, they will have access to a "computer room" equipped with analysis softwares and have access to the wifi connection.

Evening meetings
Once a week, each pair of students presents the progress reports of the mini-project they are involved in. A general and informal discussion takes place, where the students discuss technical and scientific issues with the other students, the project tutors, and faculty. The students are divided into three groups of 6-8 in order to encourage them to discuss with other students and faculties.

Final presentation
On the last Friday, all students present the achievements they have reached in their mini-project in a more formal manner (with a PowerPoint presentation) in front of all the students and faculty. They are keen to prove that they have worked hard and progressed in the projects that were assigned to them. The day is concluded by a well-deserved farewell dinner.

Social activities
The students will be accommodated at walking distance from the Institute. However, the newly opened tramway line puts the university at 10 minutes from the city centre. Bordeaux city centre is a very lively place with many bars and restaurants. Every Saturday, a visit of Bordeaux or its surroundings (Arcachon, Saint-Emilion, Atlantic coast) will be organised and a school dinner party will close each event.

Pre-School scientific activities planned
Preparation of mini-projects
Once the students are selected they are directed to the EScube school website, where the different practical projects are presented. Students are asked to rank in priority order 5 choices of projects that they would like to work on.
The organising committee then attributes a project to a pair of future students, with a routine that optimizes the adequation of projects with the choices of students. The students are then asked to get in contact with the tutor of the project. Prior to the school some reading on the topic of the practical project is requested, following suggestions by the tutor(s).
Introduction of speakers
Students get acquainted with the speaker they need to introduce in advance. They can look for information on the speakers by a web search of their activities and by contacting them before the school.

Faculty will include

Contact / Antonella Caminiti / antonella.caminiti@u-bordeaux2.fr

Poster presentations
All students will have the opportunity to present their own work at two poster sessions that will take place in the large hall of the "Institut François Magendie des Neurosciences" where poster holders stand. In order to extend scientific discussions, a buffet will follow

Bordeaux Imaging Center Imaging Center of " Bordeaux Neuroscience"
(www.bic.u-bordeaux2.fr)
The BIC is the imaging component of the Center for Functional Genomics of Bordeaux and it is a core facility identified at the national level as "Infrastructure en Biologie Sante et Agronomie" (IBISA label).
The Bordeaux Imaging Center offers access to the most advanced bio-imaging techniques for fixed and live cell imaging, video-microscopy, confocal microscopy, multiphoton imaging, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It also provides a unique set of high-end equipment for super-resolution microscopy such as confocal STED microscopy, FRAP video-microscopy, Fluorescence lifetime imaging FLIM for the measurement of molecular interactions.

The Center regularly provides general technical training courses on epifluorescence, visible light confocal, multiphoton microscopy, as well as image analysis.
In addition to training the BIC will make its equipment available to different practical projects of the school.