Courses Taught

Medical

I teach in the Central Nervous System module of the Medical Curriculum and cover topics including the basic and clinical pharmacology of sedative/hypnotic agents, anxiolytic drugs, antipsychotic agents, and anti-seizure medications. I also occasionally teach in the Medical Neuroanatomy laboratory course.

Graduate

I lecture in a variety of required courses for first-year Ph.D. students in Neuroscience (e.g., NSCI-501, NSCI-503, NSCI-507) and Pharmacology (PHAR-611, PHAR-605). I also co-direct several required courses (below).

NSCI-532/TBIO-562: Survival Skills & Ethics in Scientific Research

We will journey together through the many arenas in which professional skills are needed to survive in careers that involve research and education. While it is impossible to learn all of the necessary skills in a one-semester course, our goal is to raise consciousness about what the skills are, when they are needed, and where and how to seek help as you negotiate your career development. Topics include: grant writing, paper writing/publishing, teaching, establishing and maintaining productive mentor/mentee relationships, speaking and presentations, negotiating, collaborating, and enhancing cross-cultural communication and diversity. One particular pair of skills, which is an essential element of all other skill sets, is the ability to criticize constructively and to seek out, accept and utilize criticism. Throughout the course, you will have ample opportunity to see these skills in action and put them to use. As we explore the multiple skill sets, you will realize that strewn across the landscape are ethical challenges and dilemmas. You will confront many of these in the form of ethics cases that will be discussed in class. Our goal will be to incorporate ethical guidelines and approaches within the context of the skills, and gain an understanding of the challenges posed by conflicts of interest, toxic mentors, authorship decisions, confidentiality, attribution of credit, and responsible conduct in reporting data. The philosophy of this course is also discussed in: “From student to steward: the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University as a case study in professional development during doctoral training.” Ullrich et al., Med Educ Online. 2014, which was published by 12 of our faculty, students, and alumni.

Co-Directed with Dr. Ludise Malkova, Dr. Anna Riegel,Dr. Rebecca Riggins and Dr. Rabindra Roy

NSCI-599/TBIO-599: Pratical Data Analysis & Experimental Design

This course, designed for second year PhD students, offers practical approaches to the analyses of standard laboratory data. Proper experimental design and common mistakes in experimental design are discussed. Inferential and descriptive statistical methods are discussed from the perspective of 1) when to employ each method, 2) the limits of each statistical approach, 3) common software packages to make statistics “easy”. While some theory is discussed, it is used to illustrate key concepts. Students do not learn statistical theory for theory’s sake. The course is a single module for PhD students in Neuroscience and Pharmacology. For PhD students in Tumor Biology, a second module follows, and is run separately by the Tumor Biology Training Program.

Electives:

PHAR-593: Topics in Epilepsy

Deciphering pathological synchronization and normal brain function: The epilepsies are a diverse group of neurological disorders, characterized by recurrent seizures. In this course, we will examine the major types of epilepsy through the lens of animal models and neural circuits. Using a combination of classic papers in epilepsy and more recent literature, we will evaluate the validity and utility of common models of epilepsy, the state of our circuit-level understanding of the epilepsies, and use these circuit maps to deepen our understanding of normal brain functions. This course is heavily (if not exclusively) discussion based. Note that I offer this course by request. Ph.D. students interested in taking the course should contact me no later than halfway through the semester prior to their planned enrollment in the course.