A dozen of the best upcoming neuroscience students from Australia and New Zealand are taking part in a neuroscience master class on North Stradbroke Island until May 5.

The students are learning how to run state-of-the-art experiments using about $2 million worth of specialised laboratory equipment that has been shipped over to University of Queensland's Moreton Bay Research Station.

Co-organiser of the third annual Australian Course in Advanced Neuroscience, University of Queensland's Professor Pankaj Sah said some of the world's leading neuroscientists were teaching students during the three-week-course.

Professor Sah said the students were learning how to design and conduct specialised experiments about the firing of cells in the brain and how these get modified and how students should interpret their data.

He said the laboratory gear, which takes several days to set and pack up, was shipped to Brisbane before it was sent to the island via barge.

The cost of transporting the lab gear was donated by the Alan & Elizabeth Finkel Foundation [estaBlished by two of the founders of COSMOS]. The Foundation, set up by Alan Finkel who created Axon Instruments in California in 1983, supports neuroscience in Australia.

Each student pays $2,500 to attend the annual neuroscience course.