Year: 2012
Type: editorial
Abstract: This set of reports were first presented as talks in two 'Featured Topic' symposia at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting in April 2011 in Washington DC, USA.These two symposia grew out of an earlier US-Japan Brain Research Cooperative Program Workshop held at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in October 2010.The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST) jointly sponsored this OIST workshop to initiate and explore opportunities at the interface of neuroscience and systems biology, with the intention of follow-up meetings such as the present symposia.The OIST US-Japan workshop was organized by Dr Bruce Lindsey (University of South Florida, FL, USA) and the authors together with Erik DeSchutter (OIST, Onna, Japan).The OIST US-Japan workshop had two main themes, which then became the titles of the two aforementioned EB Featured Topics symposia: Multiscale Modeling and Systems Biology of Synapses, chaired by James Schwaber, and Multi-scale Neuronal Control of Respiratory Function: Bridging Gene Networks to Neural Networks, chaired by Kendall Morris.At our previous OIST workshop, we concluded that we had 'made a start' on these issues, and during the EB Featured Topic sessions we continued discussing and presenting bridging opportunities in methods and approaches that are applicable in systems biology practice and neuroscience.Specifically, the symposia examined how modelling of molecular processes can provide a foundation for understanding adaptive electrical behaviour of neurons, and how unbiased global data can be useful in deciding which receptors, channels and transmitters need to be considered in a simplified schematic of a functional neuronal group.The apparent disconnect between computational neuroscience and systems biology has been observed previously and discussed at length in an article by Dr De Schutter, a featured presenter in the systems biology symposium (De Schutter, 2008).Commonly, computational neuroscience focuses on membrane models of different transmitter-receptor interactions and the effects of modulators (serotonin, etc.) on synaptic transmission and their impact on network behaviour, while systems biology focuses more deeply on signalling and genetic processes.Despite the conspicuous connections between neuronal membrane composition, signalling and gene expression, there is little bridging of this gap.The workshop was concerned with the commonalities between multiscale modelling of molecular processes and neuronal systems physiology.Our aim was to explore how robust function emerges from complex, plastic processes by combining computational neuroscience and the systems biology of functional, adaptive molecular processes.In order to consider these and related issues, the OIST US-Japan workshop, and now the two EB Featured Topic symposia, were organized around the following two 'focal points' . Focus point -Featured Topic 1: multiscale neural control of cardio-respiratory function from genes to neural networksFrom the multiple levels of analysis, including intracellular signalling, gene regulatory networks, neuronal circuits and organism behaviour, several common themes emerged and could be observed at all levels of exploration.These included the existence of transient and sustained transduction mechanisms, parallel signalling paths, system memory, system redundancy or degeneracy and its importance in network reconfiguration during development and environmental stressors.Featured presenter Akiko Arata presented an update on her novel work studying the development of breathing in knockout mice (Fujii et al. 2007).
Source: Experimental Physiology
Authors: Kendall F. Morris, James S. Schwaber
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: Integrated Modeling of Adaptive Neuronal Regulation, G3186847051, Modeling Central Autonomic Regulatory Network Adaptation to Hypertension, Novel Low Cost, High Throughput DNA Sequencing Platform, Mechanisms of Central Autonomic Orchestration of Blood Pressure, COMPUTATIONAL GENOMICS OF COMPLEX ADAPTIVE INTEGRATION, Integrated Signaling and Transcriptional Networks in Circadian Clock Neurons
OpenAlex ID: W1533607309