An electronic newsletter from the Marine Biological Laboratory
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Summer’s Dream
by Lucy Palmer and Mariano Soiza Reilly
The Marine Biological Laboratory has been called a scientists’ playground; for young neuroscientists the world over, its mystique is undeniably alluring. Since its founding in 1888, the MBL has been the birthplace of many crucial discoveries, and great researchers have blossomed behind its historic walls. The MBL is located in the charming seaside village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, across the Sound from Martha’s Vineyard, tucked into the armpit of Cape Cod. The tranquil atmosphere of Woods Hole in early June quickly morphs into a fast and captivating pace of science once inside MBL’s doors.
When we—Lucy Palmer and Mariano Soiza Reilly—received our acceptance letters to the MBL’s Neurobiology course last year we were not fully aware of the life-changing experiences that lay ahead of us. To us the acceptance letter represented a summer of learning. We didn’t yet realize we would also have the opportunity be part of the evolving history of MBL, home to the scientist who first plucked from the ocean the green fluorescent protein now used to illuminate the lives of cells, and the place where the crucial mechanisms of the potassium channel in nerve cells were first determined. For the 12 budding neuroscientists in our class, this was to be a dream come true.
Although we came from different backgrounds, disciplines, and generations—professors, Ph.D. students, post doctoral researchers, biologists, physicists and engineers —the 2006 Neurobiology course put all 12 students on the same playing field. We were about to participate in nine weeks of learning of such intensity that none of us could have prepared for it. From flies and worms to fish and rats, there wasn’t a nervous system that couldn’t be explored. Following in the footsteps of historical masterminds, we learned to record signals from the squid nerve cell’s giant axon. Only meters away students were catapulted into the new frontier by patch-clamping onto neurons in the rat striatum and cortex. The lab often erupted in cheers and hoots as students achieved the unbelievable—we were probing what was once thought to be un-probable.
We had the honor and thrill of learning from Nobel Prize winner Robert Horvitz about Caenorabditis elegans, the small roundworm used to study basic mechanisms of development and cell physiology. We will never forget Ed Kravitz showing us his “fly fight club” movie demonstrating different neurotransmitter systems linked to aggressive and sexual behavior in the fruitfly Drosophila. We vividly remember Rodolfo Llinas talking about timing and perception in the brain—in a suddenly darkened room while lights flashed on and off. The extensive morning lectures would blend into afternoon experiments and as night arrived over the Eel Pond in Woods Hole, our experiments would continue. Some students analyzed the structure of dendritic spines that receive nerve signals and how the spines change shape in response. Others watched lit-up mitochondria, miniature cellular organelles, traveling along neuronal axons—as if watching car headlights on a fast highway. We performed voltage-sensitive dye imaging of neurons in marine invertebrates, and stepped back in time to attempt Golgi staining, the technique that gave scientists their first look at the architecture of the nervous system. We created clones to allow us to better probe neuronal function, and we analyzed the electrophysiological effects of numerous chemicals on neuronal signaling. And this is just a small sample of the vast array of experiments that came alive in the Neurobiology classroom.
MBL’s citizens are scientists and its common language is science. Learning electron microscopy with Tom Reese and talking with Clay Armstrong about ion-channel gating is like receiving wise advice from two of the fathers of modern neuroscience. The experience of hearing firsthand about a discovery from the person who actually made it is uniquely inspiring—as scientifically invaluable as it is personally enriching. As a professor once said, “MBL is for a scientist as Paris is for an artist.” Through its multitude of courses in various branches of biology, the MBL continues to inspire many students. We hope that this description of our experience will also fuel their imaginations.
Lucy Palmer is a Ph.D. student in the Division of Neuroscience at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Mariano Soiza Reilly is a Ph.D. student in the Laboratory of Cellular Biology, Biodiversity and Experimental Biology Department, School of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
