Joining the dots: Connectomics, genomics and therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders
Joining the dots: Connectomics, genomics and therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders
Abstract
The last twenty years have witnessed extraordinarily rapid progress in basic neuroscience, including the collection of unprecedented amounts of neuroimaging, genetic and other data relevant to neuroscience and mental health. However, the translation of this progress into improved understanding of brain function and dysfunction has been comparatively slow. As a result, the development of therapeutics for mental health has stagnated too. One central challenge has been to extract meaning from these large, complex, multivariate datasets, which requires a shift towards systems-level approaches. A second challenge has been reconciling different scales of investigation, from genes and molecules to cells, circuits, tissue, whole-brain, and ultimately behaviour. In this talk I will describe several strands of work using connectomics and other network-based approaches to bridge these gaps. Topics will include: using artificial neural networks to link the organization of large-scale brain connectivity to cognitive function; using multivariate statistical methods to link disease-related changes in brain networks to the underlying biological processes; and using network-based approaches to move from genetic insights towards drug discovey. Finally, I will discuss how simple organisms such as C. elegans can serve to inspire, test, and validate new methods and insights in networks neuroscience.
Online (Zoom)
Link to register: https://iu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_02hY7XPrReyAr52wGHmb6w
Short Bio
Prof Petra Vértes leads the Systems and Computational Neuroscience group in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. She received a master’s degree in theoretical physics and a PhD in artificial neural networks from the University of Cambridge. She is the recipient of multiple fellowships in bioinformatics and mental health, as well as the Foreign Policy magazine’s prize for Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2016. She is also one of the co-founders of the Cambridge Networks Network (CNN), a forum of over 500 academics across different disciplines who share an interest in network science (http://www.cnn.group.cam.ac.uk/ ).
Prof Vértes’ research applies tools from physics, engineering and network science to fundamental problems in neuroscience and mental health. In particular, she is interested in the structure-function relationship in brain networks, from the microscopic scale of neurons to the large-scale connectivity of brain regions, in both health and disease. In humans, she focuses especially on complex psychiatric disorders associated with neurodevelopment, such as depression and schizophrenia.