38 PhD students from all over Denmark participated in the NAD PhD course in Advanced Neuroscience in Horsens March 10-14, 2025. Each of the five course days centred on a topic within the overall course theme: molecular, cellular and synaptic properties of brain function.
The intensive programme consisted of lectures and workshops on thematic research questions as well as keynote lectures from prolific neuroscientists Professor Magdalena Götz, Professor Erin Schuman and Professor Maiken Nedergaard. The keynote lectures were also streamed to a virtual audience.
This course was the first in Neuroscience Academy Denmark’s series of national PhD courses. The courses will take place annually with rotating topics:
“The courses will have changing themes over three years, offering a common course thread in a neuroscience PhD study. They are intensive and are meant to challenge the PhD students and advance their knowledge in neuroscience,” NAD Executive Director Nicolas Caesar Petersen says.
The courses are open to neuroscience PhD students from a variety of research areas, promoting knowledge sharing across fields:
“By fostering an interactive environment that connects PhD students and leading faculty nationally and internationally, the course not only enhanced students’ technical and conceptual understanding but also strengthened their ability to address the most pressing questions in neuroscience today. This initiative was a significant step toward elevating neuroscience PhD training nationwide, promoting collaboration, and shaping the next generation of researchers in the field,” says Professor Vijay Tiwari, member of the course organising committee and the NAD Education and Training Committee.
Engaging a diverse audience of neuroscientists
Covering a wide range of topics, 20 researchers were involved in teaching the course. One of the many excellent neuroscientists who kindly agreed to share his expertise was Professor Zsolt Illés, Department of Neurology at Odense University hospital.
In collaboration with Associate Professor Iben Lundgaard (Lund University), Zsolt covered the topic of glial cell biology:
”In the lecture, we spoke about glia in the central nervous system. Since it is a very wide topic, I decided that since I am a clinician and a neurologist, I would address it from the disease aspect. I also wanted to discuss new methods, like for example single-cell approaches, and how these new methods have generated completely new, exciting and unexpected findings about the role of glial cells in the CNS,” Zsolt explains.
Approaching the subject from a clinical point of view, Zsolt gave the students valuable insights into how basic research is applied in the clinic. Zsolt and Iben’s lectures prompted many questions, which the students were then able to discuss in the afternoon’s workshop programme and subsequent group presentations on various research questions.
Zsolt sees great value in the course bringing together neuroscience PhD students from different backgrounds and institutions:
“First of all, I think that it is great and very important that the PhD students can meet each other. They are working in different fields, and this is also why I like the workshop format. Some people are familiar with the topic, some not at all, some are somewhere in the middle, and they all use different methodologies and ways of thinking when approaching the different aspects of the question. I think it is a great way for them to start interacting with each other,” Zsolt says.
Educating the neuroscientists of the future
The course brought together PhD students from diverse educational and research backgrounds, providing great opportunity for networking across research fields:
“It was great to share the week with so many PhD students from very different backgrounds. The workshops allowed us to mix with new groups every day, which gave me the chance to connect with people from different fields, exchange ideas, and learn from other’s perspectives. It was also good to get to know the neuroscience community in Denmark better, not only through the lecturers – many of whom I was already familiar from the NAD Annual Meeting last year – but also through the insights of other students about their research groups,” says Iria Esperón Abril, PhD student in the lab of Professor Daan Van Aalten at Aarhus University.
Iria’s PhD project centres on characterising and understanding the mechanisms underlying OGT-CDG, an intellectual disability syndrome. While her project is neuroscience-oriented, she has never followed any dedicated neuroscience courses during her studies, and she signed up for the NAD PhD course in Advanced Neuroscience to obtain a solid foundation:
“I felt I needed a more structured and in-depth understanding of neuroscience. It also seemed like the perfect time to do it, as I am just starting my PhD and still have room to shape my project with new knowledge and ideas. (…) The course was intensive, but it gave me a great overview of what’s currently happening in neuroscience and the key techniques used in the field. I especially enjoyed the keynote lectures, as they were really inspiring, and it was great to hear from three amazing women about their research,” Iria continues.
Another PhD student who attended the course to deepen his neuroscience knowledge is Edis Tireli. Edis has a master’s degree in physics, and he is currently two years into his PhD in the group of Henrik Larsen at Rigshospitalet. His project is occupied with developing new MRI-methods based on biophysical principles for patients experiencing long-lasting symptoms after mild concussions.
With a more peripheral connection to neuroscience, Edis appreciated the opportunity to dive into topics he was less familiar with and broaden his scientific horizon:
“I think it was especially important to see the variation within the field. For example, we got a crash course on epigenetics, which I was not so familiar with. The workshops really helped reinforce the learnings, even when it was a bit beyond my level,” Edis says.
Now it is back to the drawing board as NAD starts planning the 2026 instalment of the course. Stay tuned for more information about next year’s course!