Submitted by admin on Thu, 2006-12-07 11:11.
Using methods ranging from electrophysiology to imaging, from molecular biology to spectroscopy, the Sector cover a vast area of research.
Of particular interest are those studies aimed at understunding the structure-function relationship of ionic channels, the regeneration of the immature spinal cord following injury, the integration and transformation of synaptic signals in high-frequency discharge patterns.
Also notable is the research on the transduction of olfactory signals, and the study of the genetic basis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and parkinson's disease.
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 The neurobiology sector is devoted to research on the nervous system, using a combination of molecular, cellular and integrative approaches. To understand how the brain carries out its functions one needs to understand the properties of nerve cells and the way in which they encode and transmit information. Neurobiologists seek to explain the mechanisms that account for behaviour and for cognitive higher functions in terms of sensory signals, integration and motor output. For such complex studies to be carried out a variety of experimental approaches and scientific disciplines are required ranging from mathematics and physics to biology.
The Neurobiology sector represents a unique group of scientists in Italy and even in Europe through the close interactions between those disciplines, all represented at SISSA at an extraordinarily high level. Thus, collaborations exist between physicists, mathematicians and biologists who work in close proximity on the three dimensional structure of proteins of key importance for neurobiology. Similarly the shared interests of the sectors of Cognitive neuroscience, (concerned largely with higher functions in man) and Neurobiology have led to collaborations with the sector of Mathematics for the development of neurocomputational models of brain functions. One specialised division of the Neurobiology sector is devoted to the study of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer, Parkinson and Huntington’s disease) and regeneration after injury.
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Main research lines:
- Cellular and animal models of Alzheimer disease
- Synaptic plasticity in development
- Molecular mechanisms of Parkinson's disease
- Olfactory transduction and coding
- Regeneration of immature spinal cord after injury
- Cellular and network mechanisms of neurotransmitters
- Molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases
- Neuronal and artificial computation
