We're pleased to announce that applications for the upcoming Australasian Course in Advanced Neuroscience (ACAN) are now open.
ACAN will once again be run at the University of New South Wales during May, 2026. Once again, twelve students will join over 60 Australian, New Zealand, and International faculty to learn advanced neuroscience experimental techniques across 3 weeks, including patch clamp electrophysiology, calcium and advanced functional imaging techniques, optogenetics, in vivo recording and manipulation techniques, and behaviour.
Thinking about applying? Here are some important dates to note -
ACAN 2026 - Sunday 10th May 2026 to Saturday 30th May 2026
Applications Open - Monday February 2nd 2026
NEW DEADLINE – 11:59pm Wednesday, 18 March 2026
First-round offer letters to successful applicants will be sent in mid-March 2026 to give you time to prepare for the start of the course. The course fee for 2026 is unchanged at AUD$5250 + GST. The course fee covers the whole course, accommodation, and meals. ACAN accommodation for 2026 will be at Sydney Lodges.
The program for this year’s course is available here.
Read MoreWe're pleased to announce that applications for the upcoming Australasian Course in Advanced Neuroscience (ACAN) are now open.
ACAN is moving to UNSW Sydney and will run in January-February 2025. Once again, twelve students will join over 60 Australian, New Zealand, and International faculty to learn advanced neuroscience experimental techniques across 3 weeks, including patch clamp electrophysiology, calcium and advanced functional imaging techniques, optogenetics, in vivo recording and manipulation techniques, and behaviour.
Thinking about applying? Here are some important dates to note -
ACAN 2025 - Sunday 19th January 2025 to Saturday 8th February 2025
Applications Open - Wednesday 4 September 2024
Applications Close – Saturday 5 October 2024
First-round offer letters to successful applicants will be sent in mid-October 2024 to give you time to prepare for the start of the course. The course fee for 2025 is unchanged at AUD$5250 + GST. The course fee covers the whole course, accommodation, and meals. ACAN accommodation for 2025 will be at Sydney Lodges.
The program for this year’s course is available here.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce that the ACAN 2025 course will take place at UNSW, in Sydney, Australia.
Please keep an eye out on this page for further updates regarding the 2025 Course and its program which is currently under development.
The ACAN 2023 Course was a resounding success with fantastic feedback received from its participants, see what our 2023 participants had to say about the course:
The ACAN 2023 course was a fantastic and once-in-a-lifetime experience. I thoroughly enjoyed all three weeks of the course, particularly the practical components.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I truely cannot say it enough. I have returned to my lab with more confidence, motivation, and drive than ever before and I have hit the ground running wanting to make the most out of everything I have learned. Thank you for all the admin, long hours,thought and care that has gone into this course and making it something I will never forget.
Overall, the course was exceptional and I had a great time. I will be encouraging others to submit applications to attend in 2025!
Speaking to all the coordinators and instructors, it is clear how much time, effort and organisation goes into the course. It is amazing that such a course exists in Australia and I want to give my sincere appreciation for being selected and being able to experience this. It has increased my love for neuroscience and allowed me to form friendships with people I never would have met otherwise.
Read MoreThinking about applying for ACAN in 2023? Applications will be open soon, in the meantime, here's what one of our 2022 participants told us about the course -
I enjoyed every aspect of ACAN. The students, tutors and lecturers were great, the content and location were also great. I particularly liked the structure where each week explored different aspects of neuroscience.
Fantastic course overall, will highly recommend to prospective students.
I am extremely thankful for having had the opportunity to take part in the course, I thought it was very engaging, fun, informative, and eye opening. The people were wonderful, from the students, to the lecturers and instructors, and I wish I could do it again, or help somehow in the future. Thank you again for the time and effort, I will never forget it.
The learning I gained has been immeasurable and has given me a lot more confidence going forward in my PhD - I feel like I have a stronger understanding of the field of neuroscience as a whole, not just understanding my area of research.
I enjoyed the opportunity to learn a wide range of topics while also having hands-on practical experience. The lecturers, instructors, and other students were also incredibly nice. Overall, it was a very comfortable and friendly environment to learn as much about neuroscience as possible in 3 weeks.
Read More
Applications for the 2022 Australasian Course in Advanced Neuroscience are now open for Australian and New Zealand students. Applications close in mid-April 2022. To apply, please click here.
Read MoreAn intensive week learning whole-cell patch clamp techniques. Although the focus will be slice based electrophysiology, students will also gain experience with the oocyte expression system and dynamic clamp techniques. By the end of week 1 students have a firm grasp of the technical aspects of patch clamping in brain slices, but also an intimate knowledge of the important biophysical foundations underlying electrophysiological recording and data interpretation. During this week students will also learn advanced stereotaxic injection techniques that are required for subsequent weeks of the course.
Students will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge to use emergent imaging and in vivo electrophysiology techniques. Students will learn the principles and application of light microscopy, as well as the use of different types of imaging systems, functional fluorophores, delivery techniques, and digital image-processing software. Laboratory practicals will involve functional imaging from living animals and brain slices, with particular emphasis on single- and two-photon microscopy. Using calcium indicators, students will record neural responses in vitro and in vivo, and will be armed with analysis tools for extracting and interpreting fluorescence signals.
Students will gain insight into fundamental neuromodulatory systems operating in subcortical circuits to control behaviour and methods to interrogate system function. Students will learn how to perform stereotaxic surgery in order to record and manipulate subcortical systems with fibre photometry pharmacogenetic tools. Students will also learn how to design behavioural experiments, programme behavioural training equipment and train experimental animals to specific conditioning procedures. At the completion of behavioural experiments, students will conduct slice electrophysiology experiments to verify how pharmacogenetic and optogenetic tools modify single cell excitability.
Read More