ePoster

NAP: Advanced cellular models for studying individual sleep dynamics

Chiara Magliaro, Jens Christian Schwamborn, Patrick Ruther, Umberto Olcese, Arno Aart, Ugo Faraguna
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Chiara Magliaro, Jens Christian Schwamborn, Patrick Ruther, Umberto Olcese, Arno Aart, Ugo Faraguna

Abstract

Human sleep is a complex physiological process necessary for the organisms’ restoration and the correct functioning of the brain. Insufficient sleep is an under-reported epidemic with sleep disturbances being common early signs of neurodegeneration, in particular of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Clinical research is currently challenging the assumption that human sleep is a one-fits-all phenomenon: breaking new grounds into sleep research is needed. In this scenario, the European Research Council PathFinder Open project NAP proposes a new science-toward-technology paradigm enabling the study of human individual sleep and the identification of the effects of sleep deprivation and sleep-related disorders at the microscale. To reach its ambitious aim, the cyborganoids, obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells and integrated with microelectrodes for tracking neural dynamics, will be generated. The cyborganoids will be characterized in terms of mass and metabolism, as an intimate association exists between these parameters and sleep behaviours. Normal sleep-wake cycles and sleep deprivation will be simulated, while human sleep patterns and mass will be tracked through wearables. Allometric scaling relating the mass of an organism to its sleep-wake cycles will be exploited to compare in vitro and in vivo data and assess the cyborganoids ability to model human cycles. Structural and functional investigations on cyborganoids from healthy and PD patients will return individual-relevant information that cannot be probed by means of the currently available technologies. The targeted detection of sleep-related indicators of neurodegeneration will have implications in pharmacological research and enterprise and in the healthcare sector.

Unique ID: fens-24/advanced-cellular-models-studying-individual-4196e253