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FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Dynamics underlying astrocyte behaviour

Awarded: NOK 2.6 mill.

For a long time astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell species, have been considered passive bystanders of neural activity. The picture that is now emerging is that astrocytes are critically involved in regulating brain function. Despite extensive exper imental efforts, a thorough understanding of astrocyte dynamics is still lacking. One means by which one may be able to address crucial unresolved issues in astrocyte biology is by combining dynamical modelling with the experimental efforts. Based on phys ical and electrochemical principles and guided by empirical data we will develop local and global mathematical representations of astrocyte dynamics and the astroglia-neuron interaction. We will combine the representation of processes in the perivascular astrocyte membrane and our current successful mathematical representation of processes in the perisynaptic membrane domain into a global representation of the astrocyte and its surroundings. It is recognized that the two-abovementioned membrane domains ar e serially coupled, suggesting that astrocytes may provide a window for therapeutic manipulation of synaptic transmission. Detailed studies of the global representation will enable the assessment of the controllability of the astrocyte-neuron system with respect to e.g. drug design. In addition to being scientifically both important and timely, the project will infuse one of the most outstanding biomedical research groups in Norway (CMBN) with systems biology methodology and thinking.

Funding scheme:

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

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