Teaching

Full list courses offered by Dr. Fenglian Xu: https://www.coursicle.com/slu/professors/Fenglian+Xu/

Examples of Students' Comments on Dr. Xu's teaching at SLU can be found at the end of this page. 

NEUR3400/BIOL3400, Introduction to Neuroscience I: Molecular and Cellular

Course Description:

This course introduces students the fundamental knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. Topics include the anatomy of the nervous system, the neurons that compose it, and synaptic transmission between neurons. Students will explore the molecular and gross-anatomical levels of the autonomic nervous system, somatic sensory/motor systems and special senses. Students will also investigate neurological and mental disorders, their causes, symptoms and current treatment dogma. Research articles and clinical cases related to each topic will be introduced for active discussion during in-class lectures. Cutting-edge neuroscience techniques and experiments will be explored to provide students with up-to-date knowledge of how the brain functions, which will be useful to students who are interested in pursuing further studies in medicine, neuroscience, psychology, biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry or biophysics.

Credits/Pre-requisites: 3 credits/ BIOL 3020

Tentative Course Schedule, and/or Course Topics: 

NEUR 3550/BIOL 3550: Neuroscience Laboratory

Course Description:

This course introduces to students basic neuroanatomy, as well as cellular and molecular neuroscience through hands-on laboratory exercises using a variety of techniques. These include electrophysiology, software-based computational neuroscience, immunohistochemistry, fluorescent microscopy, pharmacology, and cell biology techniques.  Students will: 1) gain exposure to designing hypothesis-driven experiments and writing research proposals; 2) improve critical thinking skills; 3) improve their literature review, data analysis, and data interpretation skills; 4) gain experiences in scientific presentation; and 5) gain experience writing research reports.  Over the course of the semester, students will design and conduct their own group projects in the areas of electrophysiology, neuropharmacology or cellular neuroscience. This course will better equip students with scientific reasoning, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.

Credits/Pre-requisites: 1 credit/NEUR 3400 or BIOL 3400

Tentative Course Schedule, and/or Course Topics: