Content of the ECN track
In the track Experimental and Clinical Neuroscience students study the development, functioning, adaptation and pathogenesis of the nervous system. They learn to investigate how the healthy brain works (physiology) and what goes wrong (pathology) in a large variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The focus is on the underlying mechanisms and state of the art technology to investigate these mechanisms. Characteristic for the track is the multidisciplinary setting at the Utrecht Uithof campus hosting a unique density of top genetic, molecular and cellular neuroscience groups of Utrecht University and the University Medical Center (UMCU) involved in fundamental, clinical and pharmaceutical neuroscience research. Examples of topics addressed in this ECN track are: development of the nervous system, neuronal connectivity, neuronal plasticity and learning and memory, neuronal signaling (synaptic transmission and neurophysiology), genetics of behavior, drug addiction. Examples of diseases are: epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism, schizophrenia, mood disorders, anorexia nervosa and obesitas, post traumatic stress disorder and ADHD. Students will learn to use in vitro systems, animal models and human material to study neurological and psychiatric diseases. In the ECN track students get acquainted with a wide range of sophisticated techniques in neurogenetics, molecular and cellular neurobiology and neurophysiology. Students are trained in an international environment, because many research groups have a multinational composition.
ECN track coordination
Pierre de Graan is head of the epilepsy research team of the department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology in the division Brain of the University Medical Center Utrecht. His main research interest is genes and cascades involved in epileptogenesis. His translational research focuses on the relationship between febrile seizures in young children and their risk to develop temporal lobe epilepsy in later life. In a long-term collaboration with the departments of child neurology, neurosurgery and medical genetics his group has identified new susceptibility genes for febrile seizures and temporal lobe epilepsy. He combines approaches in experimental models, with studies in patients with febrile seizures (blood) and temporal lobe epilepsy (brain tissue surgically resected as part of the treatment). Mouse models are used to identify novel susceptibility genes and cascades involved in epileptogenesis, human brain tissue and blood are used for expression profiling and genetic studies. His work has been supported by the Dutch National Epilepsy Foundation, NWO and the EU.
Pierre’s door is always open for students. He helps ECN students to choose their individual study path (internships, electives, thesis) and gives advice on issue like career planning and internships abroad (including funding). Pierre is senior advisor of the editorial board of the Journal of Neuroscience and Cognition, the student journal of the master N&C.
Dr. PNE de Graan
ECN Courses
- Essentials of Neuroscience; coordinator dr. G.M.J.Ramakers (g.m.j.ramakers@umcutrecht.nl)