Astrid Prinz
Keynote speakers
- Kenji Doya
- Alon Halevy
- Astrid Prinz
- Andrew Schwartz
- Shankar Subramaniam
- Arthur Toga
Workshop speakers
- Bart ter Haar Romeny
- Uri Eden
- Klaus Linkenkaer-Hansen
- Tim Clark
- Alan Ruttenberg
- Jeffrey Grethe
- Arnd Roth
- Wulfram Gerstner
- Peter Hunter
- Markus Diesmann
- Andrey Semin
- Pietro Liò
- Albert Cardona
- Giorgio Ascoli
- Rolf Kötter
Astrid Prinz
Title: Mechanisms of neuron and network stability
Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Abstract: Neurons and neuronal networks, especially those involved in motor pattern generation, function reliably despite perturbations such as environmental and developmental changes and molecular turn-over. I will discuss recent results from experimental, computational, and theoretical studies that suggest several parallel mechanisms through which neuron and network reliability is ensured. These mechanisms include parameter redundancy, ion channel and synapse co-regulation rules, and activity-dependent as well as activity-independent homeostatic regulation of neuronal and synaptic properties.
Bio sketch: Astrid Prinz received her PhD in physics from Munich Technical University, Germany, in 2000 and joined the lab of Dr. Eve Marder at Brandeis University to conduct postdoctoral work in neuroscience, combining both experimental and computational techniques. In 2005 she joined the Department of Biology at Emory University in Atlanta as an assistant professor, where she is currently heading an interdisciplinary lab consisting of ten postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate researchers from various backgrounds, ranging from mathematics and computer science through physics and engineering to biology and neuroscience. Dr. Prinz and her lab are interested in synchronization phenomena and homeostatic regulation in neurons and neuronal networks and study them by combining electrophysiology and computational simulations, focusing primarily on central pattern generating circuits responsible for rhythmic behaviors such as breathing and walking. A major result of Dr. Prinz' research, obtained through large-scale computational parameter exploration of neuron and neuronal network models, is the finding that neuronal systems are able to function properly on the basis of widely varying cellular and synaptic properties. Dr. Prinz' work has been published in over 30 peer-reviewed publications and has been recognized through a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the 2005 Peter Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience, and several research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.