ICLM Journal Club
This Week - 15 October 2021 (9:30 a.m., via Zoom)
Speaker: Michael Levin
Title: “ Developmental bioelectricity as a precursor to neuroscience: how the collective intelligence of cell groups solves problems in anatomical morphospace ”
Abstract: Most of the components of nervous systems - ion channels, gap junctions, and neurotransmitter pathways - existed long before brains evolved. What did tissues think about before there were brains? In this talk, I will first introduce the emerging field of developmental bioelectricity, which has uncovered fascinating ways in which electrical networks made of non-neural cells make decisions about growth and form. Having made the first molecular tools for reading and writing the content of non-neural bioelectric circuits, we found that gradients of slowly-changing resting potentials are instructive prepatterns for gene expression and morphogenesis of the eye, brain, limb, and face. These dynamics mediate anatomical homeostasis during regulative development and regeneration, and sit as a kind of software layer between the genome and the anatomy. I will describe our efforts to crack the bioelectric code, and to understand its plasticity, modularity, and ability to store re-writable information about large scale body geometry. This work has led to the ability to permanently re-write the target morphology of planaria without genomic editing or transgenes, and to applications in limb regeneration, tumor reprogramming, and the repair of birth defects of the brain. Having introduced the tools for modulating non-neural computations, I will discuss examples of how the bioelectrically-stored information guides the behavior of the collective intelligence of somatic cell groups. In addition to the numerous biomedical applications, these data shed light on the origins of cognition, showing how the remarkable capacities of nervous systems could be an evolutionary pivot of much more ancient problem-solving in anatomical morphospace.
Relevant Papers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4914563/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X20320064
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867421002233?via%3Dihub
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02688/full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4667987/
About Us
Introduction
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory (ICLM) is a multidisciplinary center of UCLA labs devoted to understanding the neural basis of learning and memory and its disorders. This will require a unified approach across different levels of analysis, including;
1. Elucidating the molecular cellular and systems mechanisms that allow neurons and synapses to undergo the long-term changes that ultimately correspond to 'neural memories'.
2. Understanding how functional dynamics and computations emerge from complex circuits of neurons, and how plasticity governs these processes.
3. Describing the neural systems in which different forms of learning and memory take place, and how these systems interact to ultimately generate behavior and cognition.
History of ICLM
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory formally LMP started in its current form in 1998, and has served as a platform for many interactions and collaborations within UCLA. A key event organized by the group is the weekly ICLM Journal Club. For more than 10 years, graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, and invited speakers have presented on topics ranging from the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, through computational models of learning, to behavior and cognition. Dean Buonomano oversees the ICLM journal club with help of student/post doctoral organizers. For other events organized by ICLM go to http://www.iclm.ucla.edu/Events.html.
Current Organizers:
Megha Sehgal (Silva Lab) & Giselle Fernandes (Silva Lab). Please email us at iclm.journalclub@gmail.com if you would like to get regular updates regarding our journal club and weekly reminders.
Current Faculty Advisor:
Past Organizers:
i) Anna Matynia(Aug 2004 - Jun 2008) (Silva Lab)
ii) Robert Brown (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009) (Balleine Lab)
iii) Balaji Jayaprakash (Aug 2008 - Nov 2011) (Silva Lab)
iv) Justin Shobe & Thomas Rogerson (Dec 2011 - June 2013) (Silva Lab)
v) Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) (2013-2014)
vi) Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) & Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab) (2014-2017)
vii) Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab) & Shonali Dhingra (Mehta Lab) (2017-2018)
viii) Shonali Dhingra (Mehta Lab) (2018-2020)
Wiki Newbies
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
