MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2016 Activities by Category - Life Sciences: Hands-on

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A Look Inside the Human Brain using Modern Imaging Technologies

Dimitrios Pantazis, Director of MEG Lab

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Modern imaging technologies at MIT and MGH provide exciting new ways to understand the structure and function of the human brain. We will provide guided tours of our imaging facilities and show how we use these tools to look inside the brain. Our recently installed MEG system, capable of measuring magnetic fields a billionth of the magnetic field of earth, can record the simultaneous firing of thousands of cortical neurons as they form dynamic networks.  Our MRI scanners provide high resolution images of the human brain as subjects perform a wide range of perceptual and cognitive tasks. Our PET scanners can identify and localize specific molecules in the brain, revealing pathologies that may underlie many different brain disorders. TMS is a noninvasive method that uses electromagnetic induction to create weak electric currents and cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain. NIRS uses infrared light to illuminate tissue and infer brain activity through the diffusion and scattering of this light. tCS is a neurostimulation technique that uses low current delivered to the brain using electrodes on the scalp. We will introduce these technologies, offer lab tours and demonstrate data collection, and discuss their contribution to neuroscience.

Contact: Dimitrios Pantazis, 46-5147, 617 324-6292, PANTAZIS@MIT.EDU


Seminar on Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Jan/20 Wed 02:00PM-03:00PM MIT bldg46, rm3015

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) instrumentation, principles of light scattering and absorption, imaging of oxygenated hemoglobin, NIRS applications.

Juliette Selb - Instructor


Seminar on Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Jan/20 Wed 03:00PM-04:30PM MIT bldg46, rm3015

Topics include MRI instrumentation, magnetic fields, safety, functional imaging with BOLD response, diffusion imaging, and others.

Anastasia Yendiki - Assistant Professor, Atsushi Takahashi - Assistant Director, MR Physicist


A tour at the MRI Lab

Jan/20 Wed 04:30PM-05:30PM MIT bldg46, rm1171

A tour at the MRI lab. Demo scan (finger tapping) and data analysis.

MRI Lab: http://mcgovern.mit.edu/technology/martinos-imaging-center/technical-resources

Steven P Shannon - Operations Manager and MR Research Technologist, Sheeba Arnold Anteraper - MR Programmer, Atsushi Takahashi - Assistant Director, MR Physicist


Seminar on Positron Emission Tomography

Jan/21 Thu 02:00PM-03:00PM MIT bldg46, rm3015

Seminar on Positron Emission Technology. Introduction to PET technology and scanners at MGH; applications in tumor detection; brain metabolic activity; gene expression; neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer¿s and Parkinson's; pharmacology etc.

Quanzheng Li - Assistant Professor


Seminar on Magnetoencephalography

Jan/21 Thu 03:00PM-04:00PM MIT bldg46, rm3015

Electrophysiological basis of MEG signals; instrumentation; modeling; cortical rhythms; brain networks; combining MEG with fMRI, studying the human visual system. 

Dimitrios Pantazis - Director of MEG Lab


A tour at the MEG Lab

Jan/21 Thu 04:00PM-05:00PM MIT bldg46, rm1147

A tour at the MEG Lab, demo scan and data analysis of an MEG experiment

MEG Lab: http://mcgovern.mit.edu/technology/meg-lab

Dimitrios Pantazis - Director of MEG Lab, Yasaman Bagherzadeh - Postdoctoral Affiliate


Seminar and demo on TMS

Jan/22 Fri 03:00PM-05:00PM MGH CNY 149 - A, Location in Charlestown!

Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to depolarize and hyperpolarize neurons of the brain, applications to treat depression and examine basic mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, among others. The seminar will include a demo of the MGH TMS system!

Aapo Nummenmaa - Instructor


Seminar on Transcranial Current Stim.

Jan/22 Fri Time TBD Seminar Cancelled

Introduction on transcranial current stimulation. Differences and applications of direct- and alternating-current stimulation (tDCS and tACS), instrumentation, modulation of ongoing rhythmic brain activity.

Dimitrios Pantazis - Director of MEG Lab


Get the most from your "omics" analysis: GeneGo MetaCore Software Training

Courtney Crummett, GeneGo Trainer

Jan/26 Tue 04:00PM-06:00PM 14N-132 (DIRC)

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/21
Limited to 30 participants

Attend this IAP session and learn how to use MetaCore, a bioinformatics software tool licensed by MIT Libraries. MetaCore provides a solution for using "omics" gene lists to generate and prioritize hypotheses for novel biomarkers, targets, and mechanisms of action. Learn how to work with different types of data such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and interaction data.  Use this tool to  upload, batch upload, store, share and check data properties and signal distribution; extract functional relevance by determining the most enriched processes across several ontologies; emphasize the role of expression data in your analysis; visually predict experimental results, associated disease and possible drug targets; and compare data sets and work with experiment intersections. A new feature, Key Pathway Advisor (KPA) which can be used to predict upstream regulators from differentially expressed genes and help identify key pathways that they participate in with be demoed.  Please register. Need a GeneGo Account? Email ask-bioinfo@mit.edu

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Biology
Contact: Courtney Crummett, 14S-M48, x4-8290, crummett@mit.edu


Info Session: 2016 MIT Amgen-UROP Scholars Program

Alex Hoyt, Sara Nelson

Jan/07 Thu 03:30PM-04:30PM 5-233

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

The Amgen-UROP Scholars Program invites undergraduates to participate in faculty-mentored summer research at MIT in the science and biotechnology areas.

Students admitted to this program (known as Amgen Scholars) will have opportunities to conduct research, analyze data, present research results, network with other undergraduates with similar research interests, and develop working relationships with MIT faculty mentors and other research staff.

Sponsor(s): Office of Undergrad. Advising/Academic Programming
Contact: J Alex Hoyt, 7-104, 617 324-6700, JAHOYT@MIT.EDU


Making Sense of Scent

Andreas Mershin, Research Scientist

Jan/27 Wed 01:00PM-04:00PM E14-633, don't wear a lot of perfume/cologne/aftershave

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/25
Limited to 100 participants
Prereq: none

In 1914, Alexander Graham Bell said: "If you are ambitious to find a new science, measure a smell".

This activity is designed to give you the knowledge and practical experience necessary to understand why it's 2016 and we still haven't "measured a smell" and why it's more important than ever to do so.

During the lecture part of this activity you will learn how biological and machine noses work. We will cover emerging applications ranging from diagnostics to drug discovery and how new experimental methods are challenging old theoretical models of olfaction.

You will be equipped to critically dissect ongoing scientific controversies such as: "humans can discriminate over one trillion/no more than 5000 odors", "shape or vibration?", "analytical or synthetic?", "chemical or spectral?", "combinatorial or emergent?", "classical or quantum?".

 

During the practical session you will be trained on methods to enhance your olfactory intelligence while participating in a blindfolded perfume discrimination exercise. Most perfume novices will be surprised to discover how sensitive their noses become. Perfume aficionados may actually be able to beat a GC-MS. Anosmics please join us as controls! (we'll teach you fun tricks to confuse Sommeliers or how to cause olfactory hallucinations).  

 By the end of the course you will be able to answer Shakespeare's own question better than he did:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Contact: Andreas Mershin, E15-401G, 617 515-4192, MERSHIN@MIT.EDU


NIH Public Access Compliance Hands-on Working Session

Courtney Crummett, Biosciences Librarian

Jan/27 Wed 11:00AM-12:00PM 14N-132 (DIRC)

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

Missing a PMCID? Can't figure out why a paper isn't in compliance? Lost in NIH manuscript system? Join us for a problem solving session. 

This session is designed to provide an opportunity for hands on problem solving in the systems that need to be navigated in the process of submitting and authorizing manuscripts and reporting progress on NIH Funded Grants (eRA Commons; NIHMS, and MyNCBI). Please bring your NIH compliance problems to this session to work through together. Registration encouraged. 

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Courtney Crummett, 14S-134, 617 324-8290, CRUMMETT@MIT.EDU


Visualizing and Accessing Genomic Data Using Publically Available Genome Browsers and Databases

Charlie Whittaker, KI Bioinformatics and Computing Core Facility Researcher, Duan Ma, KI Bioinformatics and Computing Core Facility Researcher, Courtney Crummett, Biosciences Librarian

Jan/29 Fri 09:00AM-11:00AM 14N-132 (DIRC)

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

There are extensive genomic data available in public databases and these data are readily accessible using resources such as the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics tools, cBioPortal and the Broad Institute’s Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV). This hands-on session will demonstrate some common workflows that are possible with these applications including bulk sequence extraction, powerful queries and the sharing and visualization of large datasets. This session will be taught by Charlie Whittaker and Duan Ma of the KI Bioinformatics and Computing Core Facility

Eligibility: MIT researchers affiliated with the Koch Institute, the Biology Department, the Center for Environmental Health Sciences or the Department of Biological Engineering. Registration required

Sponsor(s): David H. Koch Inst. for Integrative Cancer Researc, Libraries, Biology
Contact: Courtney Crummett, 14S-134, 617 324-8290, CRUMMETT@MIT.EDU