Education
Do your graduate studies at the Department of Neuroscience
We encourage talented and enthusiastic young researchers to pursue a graduate degree (PhD) at the Department of Neuroscience.
We invite you to take contact to the laboratory in which you aim to conduct your thesis work and pursue funding opportunities together with the head of the laboratory group. See full list of researchers in the Department of Neuroscience here.
To learn about the requirements for the PhD degree at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, visit the PhD School’s website
All graduate students at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are required to enroll in a graduate program. We encourage the PhD students at Department of Neuroscience to enroll in the graduate program in neuroscience, NeuroGrad. To learn about the requirements and activities of NeuroGrad, visit our website.
An overview
IN is responsible for the majority of all formal education in neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen, and more broadly, in the greater Copenhagen area. It offers courses targeted to both pre- and postgraduate students in medicine (>500 students/year) and odontology-dentistry, as well as in the programs of human biology, Human physiology, molecular biomedicine, and biomedical engineering.
- Excitable cells
Basic neurophysiology and cellular neuroscience - CNS structure and function
Clinical neuroscience including the neurological examination - Cellular Neuroscience
Cellular and molecular properties of neurons and neural networks - Neuropharmacology
Taught in conjunction with Pharmacology - Human Neurobiology
Integrative function of the human brain incl. EEG, fMRI, DTI, PET - Neuronal Signaling
The nervous system and advanced techniques used to explore it - Tissue & Movement Biomechanics
Dynamics and energy consumption of movement - Advanced cell biology
Theoretical and practical coverage of cell biology and associated techniques - Pharmacology and Toxicology
Advanced pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics
Student opportunities
We invite highly motivated, dedicated and skilled students to contact us for an interview. We have long-term experience with supervision of bachelor and Master’s students with different backgrounds (human biology, medicine, molecular biomedicine, biology, biochemistry). Competent and committed supervision has our highest priority and projects are designed to full-fill the criteria of the individual study.
We value scientific excellence, creativity, knowledge sharing, helpfulness and dedication in our laboratories. We offer a dynamic and international research environment involving a large network of collaborators around the world.
Bachelor and Master’s projects are available in the following areas:
Are you interested in epilepsy research and working towards exploring and testing new target gene therapeutic for epilepsy? Would you like to work with rodents, learn how to perform stereotactic surgeries and perform behavioral studies? Maybe also you dream about bridging the knowledge of small peptides and viral vector technologies with pre-clinical studies for development of next candidate treatment for epilepsy? Do you want to be part of a dedicated research group where helping each other and sparing goes without saying?
If you answer yes to some of those questions, it can be a match! Please reach out to Andreas Toft Sørensen (andreass@sund.ku.dk) to hear more about master thesis opportunities.
Neurons transport many proteins from the cell body to the axon terminals, sometimes across a distance of more than 1 meter, to maintain the presynaptic machinery that underlies neurotransmitter recycling and release. This fascinating process is called axonal transport. To provide energy, mitochondria are also transported to the release sites. Other organelles such as lysosomes also undergo axonal transport, which is vital for clearing the axon for worn-out and potentially toxic components. Disturbed axonal transport is linked to neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer's disease and peripheral neuropathy.
If you are interested in studying how axonal transport is accomplished and regulated using advanced genetic and cell biological methods, please contact Ole Kjaerulff.
In the Lauritzen lab we work on a range of projects all related to the brain physiology and blood vasculature. Our focus is how the brain is kept healthy with aging and in disease. We have many years of experience in in vivo physiology in mice using basic electrophysiological and laser-optic techniques, transgenic mice, and 2-photon microscopy. If you have some time to invest you can get experience with microsurgery and live imaging of brain cells and vessels through cranial windows.
If this might interest you please contact Barbara Lykke Lind or Martin Lauritzen
Are you interested in knowing how neurotransmitters are released by vesicular exocytosis within one millisecond of the arrival of an action potential? Are you interested in using patch-clamp and advanced fluorescence techniques to study neurotransmitter release in real time? Do you want to know how this machine is working – and how it is regulated, for instance during learning? Do you want to know how mutation or other insults to the release machinery lead to diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia or intellectual disability? Do you want to come up with ideas how to counteract such mutations/insults, and find new ways to treat disease?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Jakob B. Sørensen
Are you interested in molecular and cellular neurobiology? Do you want to understand how neurons control activity and availability of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters in the synapse? Are you interested in understanding how mutations in these proteins contribute to CNS-diseases such as depression, ADHD, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and addiction? Do you want to know how you become addicted to drugs such as cocaine or amphetamine?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Ulrik Gether
Would you like to know how membrane proteins like neurotransmitter transporters work at the molecular level? Are you interested in using crystallography and advanced fluorescence techniques to study their transport function? Do you want to characterize how drugs act on neurotransmitter transporters? Are you interested in finding new ways to discover drugs for treatment of e.g. cocaine addiction and depression?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Claus Juul Løland or Ulrik Gether
Are you interested in how neuronal scaffolding proteins regulate synaptic signaling processes? Would you like to know if scaffolding proteins could be a new target for treatment of CNS-diseases such as stroke and addiction? Would you like to understand the role of membrane-shaping protein domains (e.g. BAR domains) in neuronal scaffolding? Do you want to know how BAR domain proteins control protein trafficking not only in neurons but also in other cells such as endocrine cells?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Kenneth L. Madsen or Ulrik Gether
Master’s project in Neuroscience
We are offering Master’s thesis project in neuronal calcium imaging and electrophysiology to study the role of interneurons in an animal model of schizophrenia.
The project will start in September or as soon as possible hereafter. We are looking for a candidate with a Master’s project duration of 12-18 months.
Project description
Parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons comprise a third of total inhibitory neuron population in the cortex and were shown to be the key subtype of interneurons that control information flow. PV+ interneurons regulate synchronization of oscillations (i.e. rhythmic brain activity) in the brain by controlling output of principal neurons and thus modulate cortical network activity. PV+ interneurons are affected in schizophrenia disorders. However, there are >10 subtypes of PV+ interneurons and it is unknown what subtypes are impaired in schizophrenia and contribute to brain dysfunction.
To identify subtypes of PV+ interneurons that are impaired in schizophrenia, we will implement 15q11.3 microdeletion mice, which exhibit schizophrenia-like behavior and will cross them with PV-Cre mice, such that Cre recombinase is expressed only on PV+ neurons. We will inject these mice with AAV-FLEX-GCaMP6s virus into the cortex resulting in the expression of the calcium indicator GCaMP6s, exclusively in PV+ neurons.
We will then assess the activity PV+ interneurons by means of calcium imaging technique in wild type and 15q13.3 mice. After the imaging, we will fix the sections and label by immunohistochemistry several subtype-specific markers of PV+ neurons. Since we will know activity for each PV+ neuron from calcium imaging and their subtype from immunohistochemistry, we will analyze how activity of each PV+ neuron subtype is affected in schizophrenia model and will identify those that have most dramatic changes, thus likely having the largest contribution to schizophrenia phenotype.
Methods: calcium imaging and electrophysiology in a slice preparation of the brain.
Scientific environment
The project is a collaboration between the labs of Konstantin Khodosevich (BRIC, UCPH) and Jean-François Perrier (Department of Neuroscience, UCPH). The candidate will be work under the daily supervision of Nikolaj Winther Hansen at the Department of Neuroscience (Mærsk Tower, Blegdamsvej 3, Copenhagen).
Your qualifications: You are highly motivated and studying Neuroscience, MedTek, KBS, Human Biology, Molecular Biomedicine. You are flexible, ambitious and can work independently.
Application
Contact Jean-François Perrier (perrier@sund.ku.dk) including a CV and grade transcript.