Biotechnology ePosters

Despite being inspired by biological neuronal networks (BNNs), artificial neural networks (ANNs) have fundamental differences from their biological counterparts. While ANNs excel at solving complex problems across various domains, BNNs outperform them in terms of energy efficiency and processing highly complex…

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are characterized by low power consumption, highly parallel computation and event-driven information processing [1]. Many of the concepts that promise to improve the efficiency of SNNs compared to conventional deep neural networks, such as spikes, sparsity, and static suppression, are…

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder due to the loss of various neuronal populations, including the GABAergic and the dopaminergic systems in the striatum and in the midbrain. The resulting degeneration of the nigro-striatal circuit is responsible for a severe neurological…

Stem cell therapy has emerged as a promising strategy for treating stroke, but it still presents several challenges, such as the optimal administration route or safety concerns. In clinical practice, endovascular delivery of cells is preferred to intracerebral injection. However, circulating stem cells must cross the…

Peripheral nerves are highly susceptible to injuries. Severe nerve injuries with complete disruption in the nerve continuity need surgical intervention; injuries with nerve substance loss need a nerve substitute to fill the gap. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine techniques have developed several artificial…

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prevalent demyelinating disease that primarily affects young adults. Within the realm of MS patients, the extent of disease severity and progression differs greatly across individuals. Studies conducted on post-mortem tissue samples have characterized complex lesion types that diverge…

Air pollution is a significant threat to human health and it is estimated that globally 8.9 million deaths happen because of it. A link between urban particulate matter exposure and an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease has already been identified. For this reason, I used wild-type hiPSCs to set up a 2D…

The primary and progressive degeneration of motor system is the main pathogenic process that characterizes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of motor neurons (MN) in the primary motor cortex and spinal cord. Patients’ death occurs in 3–5 years after the diagnosis due to…

Amphibians hold a unique position in the study of the evolution and development of the vertebrate the central nervous system (CNS), as they reflect the transition from aquatic to land-based locomotion. A comprehensive exploration of the amphibian CNS, however, necessitates genetic and neural tracing tools, which were…

The salamander axolotl (Ambyostoma mexicanum) is a model for studying nervous system evolution, development, and regeneration. Axolotls can regenerate injuries to the central and peripheral nervous system making them an ideal model to study formation and regeneration of neuronal circuits. Tools to visualize and…

Adenosine Deaminases Acting on RNA (ADAR) enzymes catalyse the conversion of adenosine (A) to inosine (I) within double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules. This mechanism, known as A-I RNA editing, is able to modulate gene expression, RNA stability and protein function.Recently, new therapeutic approaches based on…

Birds are excellent models to study learning, complex cognition, song and vision. However, to understand how these behaviors are realized within the brain, methods that are able to record and control cellular activity on a millisecond timescale are essential. Recent advancements in novel methods, such as optogenetics,…

Artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to be effective in solving complex problems in fields such as computer vision, natural language processing and medicine. However, in terms of energy efficiency, deep learning approaches are still outmatched by their biological counterparts. Yet, the underlying fundamental…

Calcium ions (Ca2+) play pivotal roles in regulating diverse brain functions, including cognition, emotion, locomotion, and learning and memory. These functions are intricately regulated by a variety of Ca2+-dependent cellular processes, encompassing synaptic plasticity, neuro/gliotransmitter release, and gene…

Biological neural networks show an inherent structure and connections that are reproduced across individuals. It is still largely unknown how the structure of such networks is correlated with their observed functional dynamics and computational output. Detailed investigation of network structure and its functional…