Event Information:

• Wed

  13

  Feb

  2019

  Seminar: “Challenges and opportunities of in vitro neuronal cultures: from neuroengineering to neurological disorders”

  1:00 pmAula 17, Campus Clínic

  Dr. Jordi Soriano | Physics Faculty, Universitat de Barcelona

  Abstract

  Neuronal cultures are a unique system. Their reduced size and ease preparation have made them excellent platforms to investigate a broad range of phenomena in living neuronal networks. Neuronal cultures have become a true interdisciplinary lab-on-a-chip system, fascinating the physical and medical community alike: where the physicists see a grand complex system, the physicians see an extraordinary cross-platform to pinpoint a number of molecular and cellular processes. In this talk I will approach neuronal cultures from the viewpoint of a biophysicist. I will first introduce our main experimental and data analysis tools to investigate the richness of neuronal cultures. Next I will expose the potential –and difficulties– of engineered neuronal cultures to tackle open questions in brain research, including integration-segregation balance and resilience to damage. Along the talk I will introduce different ongoing collaborations that use neuronal cultures as platform to model and arrest neurological disorders.