Descrizione del progetto
Modello di comunicazione neuronale
Le neuroscienze hanno compiuto enormi progressi nel chiarire le interconnessioni strutturali e funzionali del cervello, ma c’è ancora molto che non sappiamo. Le microcolonne corticali stanno ripetendo unità funzionali, comprendendo cellule attive in modo sincrono, un po’ come i processori paralleli nei computer. È probabile che siano un substrato neurale dell’apprendimento e della memoria poiché il loro cattivo funzionamento è stato collegato a malattie associate alla progressiva perdita di memoria e cognizione. STOICISM sta applicando i principi e le tecniche della teoria dell’informazione e dei modelli matematici per creare un potente banco di prova in silico per testare le teorie della comunicazione molecolare.
Obiettivo
Neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer’s disease, currently affects 15 million people in the US with a death rate of 29.5% among 65+ years old and produces a cost around 200 billion dollars per annum. These type of pathologies are caused by neuronal communication failures in multi-scales of the cortical microcolumns. Neuroscience has historically provided theories and experiments to explain the signal propagation and neurodegeneration inside cortical microcolumns, but these behaviours are far from being fully explained. The newly formed research area of molecular communications can bring light to this challenge by using information and communication theory in this scenario. A novel interdisciplinary methodology (multi-scale modelling + neurological modelling + information theory) can analyze and quantify the dynamics in the synaptic plasticity and provide further understanding about cortical microcolumns. With this approach, STOICISM project aims to i) model the multi-scale cortical microcolumn neurology; ii) model and quantify the neuronal communication; iii) investigate the long-term plasticity dynamics and control strategies. STOICISM will develop a complete in-silico model of the 2mm cortical microcolumn that will account for its multi-scale communication. The synaptic plasticity variation will be modelled as a stochastic model based on in-vitro experimentation of the neuron-astrocyte communication. This action requires the researcher to move to a world-center in computational biophysics, such as BioMediTech, where he can get appropriate training, perform biological experiments and collaborate with other top researchers while being supervised by the renowned leading academic Prof. Jari Hyttinen. STOICISM will change the way we understand the effects of neurodegeneration which will enable future non-invasive detection and drug discovery, potentially creating a longer-term impact on the ageing society.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
33100 Tampere
Finlandia