Dr.Maurizio De Pittà
Seminar: “Computational Glioscience: Computational Methods and Modeling of Astrocyte Physiology and Neuron-Glia Interactions for Biomedical Applications”.
30/04/2021 at 16.30 on TEAMS
Abstract:
The interactions of neurons with non-neuronal cells, dubbed “glia,” are coming under the spotlight of modern Neuroscience for its implications in the brain’s information processing. Astrocytes are prominent glial cells of the brain and are involved in practically any aspect of the brain pathophysiology at multiple scales of interactions – from subcellular and synaptic levels to network circuits and cognitive structures. In this framework, I present several approaches carried out at my group to characterize neuron-glial interactions in fundamental and translational topics of brain function, from memory formation to neurodegeneration in age-related cognitive decline. The exploitation of manifold reduction, bifurcation theory, and mean-field analysis of interacting cellular networks reveal nested pathways for bistability that uniquely emerge by glial signaling, providing novel insight for future therapeutic interventions.