Neural-Glial Signaling Deciphered by Hyper-Cluster Analysis

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0078055JUNGOnly a fraction of the cells in brain tissue are neurons. The majority of brain cells are glial cells. The star-shaped astrocytes, a subgroup of glial cells form an integrated network known as a syncytium. Astrocyte syncytia support waves of calcium release that signal information between astrocytes and neurons. The goal of this project is to analyze these signaling patterns in cultures of brain tissue to decipher their messages and to understand how they differ in healthy and epileptic brain cells.The project will be a collaborative effort between biologists at Viatech-Imaging/Cognetix and physicists at Ohio University. Viatech-Imaging/Cognetix will provide fluorescent video microscopy to observe the calcium waves, and will provide the expertise necessary to grow, modify, and understand the physiology of the cultured brain cells. Ohio University physicists will analyze and model the dynamical properties of the calcium waves to provide a basis for understanding the coherent signaling and communication between regions of cells. The central analytical tool to be used and further developed in this study is called Hyper-cluster analysis. This technique reveals a unique statistical fingerprint of the intercellular messaging. Statistical fingerprints will be obtained in a variety of healthy and epileptic tissues obtained from Children's Medical Hospital in Cincinnati. Once these fingerprints can be deciphered, a wide range of exciting biomedical applications becomes possible. These include personalized quantitative testing of the effectiveness of anti-epileptic compounds and screening of the effectiveness of new drugs in a culture dish without the debilitating side effects that often accompany clinical testing.