A dynamical study of the functioning and interaction of astrocytes with neurons using python.
Abstract:
Until recently glia was belived to serve as structural and chemical support for the neurons. However,
novel studies point towards the active role of glia in the brain. As most aboundant glial cell in
the mammalian brain, astrocytes have been found to be involved in sensing and regulating synaptic
activity. The aim of this project is therefore to study the modelling of calcium dynamics, a key
secondary messenger in numerous pathways, related to these new active roles that astrocytes have
been found to play in the CNS, and whose malfunction can lead to the appearance and evolution
of several mental diseases. Along the study, different dynamics for inositol triphosphate (IP3), the
signaling molecule of the ion channels, will be implemented in order to understand the behaviour of
a primitive ”dressed neuron”, that is, neuron-atrocyte interaction.