Modeling of cellular morphologies in Neurodegeneration
Nowadays, one of the big challenges in medicine is to understand neurodegenerative diseases, as Parkinson and Alzheimer’s Diseases. While the cause of these diseases is still unknown, it has been observed that cells in the brain change their usual behaviour. Indeed the interplay between neurones and different glia cells is essential for a healthy homeostasis of the brain. Thus the progression of neurodegenerative diseases lead to dysfunction in cellular metabolism and in their communication, but also in their morphologies.
Mathematical models and simulations are widely used to perform physical phenomena. In this work, to describe intra- and inter-cellular dynamics of metabolic processes Reaction-Diffusion PDE systems will be consider and also the geometry of cells will be taken into account using different mesh discretisation methods.
Aim
The objective of this project is to develop a model for cell interactions by considering the different physiological conditions inferred from images to better understand brain dynamics and obtain new insights in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
References
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Links
http://www.fnr.lu/funding-instruments/pride/
https://wwwen.uni.lu/fstc/doctoral_school_in_science_and_engineering_dsse
Supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (PRIDE17/12252781/DRIVEN).