{"id":92832,"date":"2025-07-30T15:14:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T13:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/?p=92832"},"modified":"2025-12-16T15:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:31:14","slug":"dr-joanna-bernacka-completes-cajal-course-in-lisbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/dr-joanna-bernacka-completes-cajal-course-in-lisbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Joanna Bernacka Completes Cajal Course in Lisbon"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Dr Joanna Bernacka from the Neurophysiology of Oncology Research Group at \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT has recently returned from a three-week stay at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, where she participated in the highly regarded Cajal course \u201cInteracting with Neural Circuits.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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A Scientific Dream Come True\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From the beginning of her career, Joanna has been fascinated by the physiology of the nervous system. After graduating from Jagiellonian University and completing her PhD at the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, she joined the interdisciplinary team led by Dr Mateusz Kucharczyk.
\u201cWhen I saw how advanced the techniques planned for our projects were, I knew I wanted to prepare properly,\u201d she recalls. Her ambition to take part in a Cajal course had been with her for years. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those almost mythical opportunities you hear about at university \u2014 legendary, difficult to get into, but incredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>

Thanks to partial funding from the programme organisers, additional support from her supervisor, and co-financing from a research project, participation became possible.<\/p>

The course was an intense three-week programme: only two days off, with full-day schedules of lectures by leading scientists from around the world followed by practical mini-projects conducted in small teams. Participants worked with state-of-the-art equipment and received daily support from teaching assistants \u2014 young researchers who lived, worked, and learned alongside the course cohort.
\u201cIt was a unique atmosphere \u2014 no barriers, no judgement, just tremendous support,\u201d says Dr Bernacka.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Neuropixels: A Breakthrough Technology\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dr Bernacka chose to train in Neuropixels \u2014 an advanced electrode technology capable of simultaneously recording the activity of hundreds of neurons.
\u201cIt was my biggest challenge. I knew we planned to implement Neuropixels in our lab, so I wanted to be well prepared,\u201d she explains.<\/p>

The advantages of the technology are significant: accelerated research workflows, access to more complex datasets, and a reduced number of animals needed for experiments. \u201cIn one experiment, we gather data that previously would have required many repetitions,\u201d she emphasises.<\/p>

As part of her mini-project, Dr Bernacka and her team built a recording setup entirely from scratch.
\u201cWe were given a cabinet full of components and told: build whatever you want. Things could break \u2014 and they often did \u2014 but we always had incredible support,\u201d she says.<\/p>

One of the organisers\u2019 key messages was that failure is an integral, valuable part of scientific work \u2014 and a powerful learning tool.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nowe relacje, kontakty i poczucie wsp\u00f3lnoty \u2013 dr Joanna Bernacka z Grupy Badawczej Onkologii Neurofizjologicznej (pierwsza z lewej) wr\u00f3ci\u0142a z kursu Cajala w Lizbonie nie tylko ze specjalistyczn\u0105 wiedz\u0105<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Building Networks: An Essential Research Asset\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Beyond the technical skills, Dr Bernacka returned with something equally important: new connections and a strong sense of community.
\u201cI met people my age working at top universities. We sat together over coffee, sharing experiences \u2014 including failures. It gave me the feeling that I can do this \u2014 that we<\/em> can do this,\u201d she notes.<\/p>

Among the lecturers were scientists she previously knew only from high-profile conference presentations. In the informal course atmosphere, they shared insights \u201cfrom behind the scenes\u201d, discussing not only breakthroughs but also the missteps along the way.<\/p>

Dr Bernacka brought back not just expertise but notebooks full of notes, presentations, and concrete solutions that she is now sharing with her team.
\u201cThis is not only my development \u2014 it is a gain for the entire group,\u201d she emphasises, already working with her colleagues on building a Neuropixels recording station at \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Joanna Bernacka from the Neurophysiology of Oncology Research Group at \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT has recently returned from a three-week stay at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, where she participated in the highly regarded Cajal course \u201cInteracting with Neural Circuits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":83968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[796],"class_list":["post-92832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-successes"],"acf":{"czas_czytania":"3","order":"0"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 14:26:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92832"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95703,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92832\/revisions\/95703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}