This summer the Conte Center will once again be teaming up with Life Sciences Outreach at Harvard to offer teachers the "Exploring Neuroscience and Mental Health" workshop.

This three-day program will open with a pair of lectures focused on the developmental origins of mental health and illness, and how this topic can be probed with both animal models and human research. These talks will be complemented by “In Our Own Voice” presenters from the National Alliance on Mental Illness who will share what they’ve learned from personal experiences with mental illness.

The workshop will also feature a hands-on laboratory exploring zebrafish embryology and its relation to neuroscience, following a lecture highlighting the ways these small vertebrates can be used to gain insight into the genetics of human brain disorders.

Additionally, there will be an introduction to the use of new superresolution imaging methods in neuroscience, tour of the Center for Brain Science MRI facility and Bauer Core facility at Harvard University (the latter highlighting some technologies important for the latest genetic research on mental illness) and a chance to lunch with graduate students and postdocs in the Conte Center laboratories. We will close with an opportunity to brainstorm with other teachers about incorporating neuroscience into your curricula.