By Riley Conover-Elmer and Dr. Sara M. Freeman

Patch Clamps, Electrophysiology, and the Optimistic Future of Neuroscience at USU

Patch Clamps, Electrophysiology, and the Optimistic Future of Neuroscience at USU PDF File

Introduction

  • There is not currently a Neuroscience Bachelor’s program offered at Utah State University. However, it is anticipated to be offered in the near future.
  • The neuroscience courses available to students generally fall in the Biology or the Psychology department. There are affiliated faculty from seven other departments within the neuroscience program.
  • Neuroscience enrollment is exponentially increasing in the United States (Ramos et al., 2017).

A graph showing student enrollment over the span of 1985 to 2015 going up exponentially.

Equipment

Some of the equipment planned for use in the Neurophysiology course is:

  • Faraday Cage,
  • Micropipette puller
  • AC/DC Patch-clamp amplifier
  • Micromanipulator
  • Suction electrodes
  • Dissection microscopes
  • Other electrophysiological recording software.

Various medical equipment with labels.

We are developing a neurophysiology course that engages students, capitalizes on existing equipment, and promotes interest in the growing neuroscience community at USU.

Support ETE Scholars

Dr. Freeman received a small grant from the Office of Empowering Teaching Excellence to support this work.

Methods

  • Time was spent identifying and figuring out the mechanics of equipment left by previous professors.
  • Experiments were chosen based on difficulty, time, and principle of neurobiology associated with the experiment.
  • Patch-clamp electrophysiology is being used to study the muscle receptor organ (MRO) in crayfish (Lekrisawat et al., 2010).
  • We contacted more than 5 academic representatives from across the country to acquire new ideas for experiments, inquire about the best equipment, and discuss how to further neuroscience knowledge within the community.

Results

  • We have successfully built much of the equipment and are currently doing preliminary experiments with much of the equipment.
  • We will begin testing experiments mid-April.
  • We have decided to use a variety of physiological techniques to study organisms such as earthworms, crickets, crayfish, and humans.

A crayfish, a worm, and a cricket.

Conclusions

  • The growing neuroscience program at Utah State University reflects the rapidly developing advancements in the neurobiology industry.
  • While we predict to see higher rates of involvement, research, and neuroscience course enrollment on our campus, we will also see qualitative results as students obtain invaluable lab experience in digestible ways.