(720g) Invited Speaker: Modeling How Brain Cells Form Networks in Health and Disease

Brain development, formation of memories, and brain tissue repair all depend on the coordinated activity of single cells. Characterizing cells as adaptive systems, the Qutub lab develops computational-experimental methods to study how cells communicate and coordinate with each other during growth, with the overall goal of controlling cell-cell interactions to improve human health. This talk showcases applications of graph theory and live imaging to uncover how human neural networks emerge from the coordination of single stem cells.

Single neurons can take on unique functions, and the process of neural differentiation appears species-specific. These observations make it critical to study neural differentiation in human cells at the single cell level. However the differentiation process is immensely complex, and dependent on spatial and temporal cues from neighboring cells. Neural stem cells transform into neurons through intricate coordination of chemical, mechanical and electrical cell-cell communication. While studies have focused on one or two of these modes of communication, how the three are interconnected: chemical signaling, spatial patterning and electrical activity, has yet to be well understood. The integrated quantitative-experimental work introduced in this talk is illuminating how neural cells switch their modes of communication to form electrically functional neuronal networks. Results show which topological features of neural networks link to function, identify characteristics of healthy neuron formation, and introduce an experimental platform and computational framework to study the cellular dynamics of human neuronal development in health and disease.