Donders institute

Donders Institute of Cognition and Behaviour, department Memory and Emotion - Mapping the important connections that play a role in the arousal effects (stress) on object recognition memory

Vincent Roes, vinciroesi1995@hotmail.com 
I analysed brainslices under the microscope and took pictures of certain areas to find out which brain regions are projecting to other brain regions. At the same time, there was a new virus used to trace these connections by fluorescence and I had to determine which concentration of the virus injection was optimal for analysis, eg. too low and the fluorescence was invisible, too high and the virus might spread to neighbouring regions.

Learned techniques 
I was allowed to go to guest lectures and meetings on new techniques, which gave new insights and was very interesting. We had weekly meetings in which students presented their findings or a paper that's relevant for their research, which improved my presentation skills and gave insight into the way things work in a department. I brushed up my microscope skills and learned the ins and outs of more advanced microscopes and I learned new techniques like iDisco, which, unfortunately, I was not allowed to execute, due to the time it takes to prepare.

Tips 
Before you start, make sure that you discussed what you are going to do and in what timeframe, so you can spend enough time in your second half to finalise your thesis and you won't be short on time at the end.

 

Donders Institute, Neuroinformatics / Vision - Leber Congenital Amaurosis, specifically cortical reorganization after extended periods of blindness

Max Hennink, maximiliaan22@gmail.com 
Running a test experiment on visual reflexes in normal and blind mice. Analysis of two-photon data from normal and knockout mice to see what was going on in their brains.

Learned techniques 
Working with test animals, analysis of two-photon imagery, matlab skills.

Tips 
Go talk to teachers, ask them personally. Works a lot better than sending random emails.