Attending the Drosophila Neurobiology: Genes, Circuits & Behavior course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was a transformative experience. The program combined inspiring lectures with intensive laboratory training, providing a comprehensive overview of how Drosophila can be used to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience.
Mornings and evenings featured lectures from leading scientists covering topics from development to adult behavior, demonstrating how each stage of the fly’s life can be leveraged for discovery. These sessions were complemented by hands-on labs, where we practiced electrophysiology, performed intricate dissections, and tested state-of-the-art tools and software for analyzing fly behavior.
The course concluded with capstone projects, where participants designed and executed independent experiments. For my project, I explored habituation—central to my PhD research—by developing a novel electrophysiological protocol. Using photoactivation tools, I attempted to habituate larval motor neurons and record the resulting muscle activity. Having had no prior experience with electrophysiology, the opportunity to design and implement a full experimental workflow with advanced equipment was both a challenge and a breakthrough. These skills, along with exposure to bioinformatic tools for the Drosophila Brain Connectome, will directly strengthen my doctoral work on the neuronal circuits underlying habituation.
As a student from Greece, participating in this prestigious course in the United States presented significant financial challenges. The first scholarship I received—after an extensive search—came from the Hellenic Bioscientific Association of USA (HBA). Thanks to HBA’s generous support, I was able to secure my spot and benefit from this exceptional opportunity, which would otherwise have been beyond my reach.
I am deeply grateful to the HBA for making this experience possible and for investing in the growth of young scientists like me.
Alexandros Charonitakis, PhD candidate
Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research
Biomedical Sciences Research Centre “Alexander Fleming”, Greece
