On the 23rd and 24th of October the 6th Annual SDC Neuroscience & Neuroimaging Symposium was held. The event is an annual gathering of MSc students, PhD students and professionals affiliated with the Neuroscience & Neuroimaging education on SDC. The event first and foremost serves as a presentation of the new projects started by the second year MSc students. This is part of the final approval of these projects, but instead of reserving this presentation for the most necessary persons, the education collaboration between Aarhus University and UCAS invites a wide range of researchers to share their ongoing projects.
For a collaboration which literally is spread across the world, the symposium is a great opportunity to listen in on what fellow students and colleagues currently are working on. Especially for the first year master students, this gives a unique look into the possibilities within the educational framework, as we during the first year must reach out to possible future supervisors and make agreements for our year long projects.
This year MSc student presentations spanned wide, just as the education itself does, encompassing both molecular biology, imaging techniques, psychosomatic diseases and psychology. Project titles such as the following are evidence of just such diversity: “Machine learning for prediction of schizophrenia from reward-related functional MRI” (Sophie Bögemann), “Gender-specific differences in absolute cerebral blood flow and functional connectivity in a rat model for migraine” (Mareike Hörnschemeyer), “The function of collapsin response mediator protein-2 (CRMP2) on myelination ” (Feng Yinghang), and “The belief about pleasure” (Natasha Dratinskaia Christiansen).
Five current PhD students also shared progress and plans for their projects. Nick Yin Larsen showed his methods for analysing coloumnarity and volume tensors of neurons in schizophrenic brains, Qichao Zhang presented his work using Drosophilia as a model of Alzheimer’s disease, Malte Laustsen talked about his work with prospective motion correction in MRI, Anne Katrine Tang Stenz had new research looking into improved acute treatment of ischemic stroke, and Signe Kirk Fruekilde showed her array of techniques used to investigate cerebral capillary blood flow.
The student presentations was followed up by suiting questions from the audience showing both interest, guidance and critique.
This article’s author was personally most intrigued by the talk about “Human In-vivo Brain MR Current Density Imaging” by Associate Professor of the Technical University of Denmark and Senior scientist of the Danish Research Centre of Magnetic Resonance, Lars G. Hanson.
As a current first year master student I can stand witness to the importance of communal gatherings in which a future career can be pursued. The symposium serves a social function just as it does a professional one - and this is important, since science is not only about personal immersion in challenging problems, but also about sharing newfound knowledge and wonder with the people in your community.
Written by Peter August Rasmussen, from 2018 SDC Neuro Master Program
