Stanford Intensive Neuroscience (SIN) Boot Camp

All incoming students are required to take the Stanford Intensive Neuroscience (SIN) bootcamp course, a two-week intensive program that introduces students to single cell physiology and molecular biological techniques. The bootcamp has been a favorite of students for the past 12 years and remains a cornerstone of the program. Students interact with faculty and senior students to design experiments, collect data (electrophysiology of single neurons, as well as optical imaging and circuit excitation), and analyze/interpret/present on the data collected. In addition, students are introduced to potential faculty mentors who discuss their training philosophy and research interests.

September 10 - September 21, 2018

Instructors

  • John Huguenard, Ph.D.
    Department of Neurology
  • Anthony Ricci, Ph.D.
    Department of Otolaryngology
  • Sui Wang, Ph.D.
    Department of Ophthalmology
 
Teaching Assistants
  • Tyler Benster
  • Minseung Choi
  • Chung-ha Davis
  • Samantha Golf
  • Josh Melander

Thank You

The Neurosciences program acknowledges the contributions from the following vendors in support of teaching:

TBD

Directors

Jun Ding

Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology

Dr. Ding's goal is to bridge the gap between molecular or cellular events and the circuit mechanisms that underlie motor behavior. In addition, they aim to further help construct the details of psychomotor disorder ‘circuit diagrams,’ such as the pathophysiological changes in Parkinson’s disease.

Learn more about Dr. Ding

Shaul Hestrin

Professor of Comparative Medicine

Dr. Hestrin and his lab aim to understand how the properties of neocortical neurons, the circuits they form and the inputs they receive give rise to neuronal activity and behavior. His approach includes behavioral studies, two-photon calcium imaging, in vivo whole cell recording in behaving animals and optogenetic methods to modulate activity of cortical neurons.

Learn more about Dr. Hestrin

Hear what our students had to say

...I loved that fact that instead of superficially covering a broad range of topics, we decided to focus on specific topic and learn it well. I felt that I really understood what was done in lab, and that each session & lecture built on the last. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I realize that teaching bootcamp to a wide range of interests and backgrounds is extremely difficult, and I think that both the faculty and the students made a valiant effort. I was very impressed by the time commitment that both the faculty and the students made in order to have bootcamp be well organized and functional. I really liked the social aspect of bootcamp, both for getting to know faculty, TAs, and especially other students in my class.
... the presentations were one of the most valuable experiences of boot camp. The unstructured nature mimics what it will be like throughout grad school and the rest of our professional lives, and the skills we obtained by collectively figuring out a direction for our presentation as a group are skills that can't be taught through a lecture or reading.