Synapse-specific trapping and whole-brain fragmentation: the complex road to general anaesthesia

Host: Professor Ehsan Arabzadeh

Abstract

Low price molecular profiling is switching the disease discovery paradigm where we start with cell lines or animal models and attempt to translate discoveries into humans. Instead, today we're able to study humans first and validate our findings in cell lines or animal models. This change has ushered in unprecedented opportunities for researchers to directly impact human health, but the big data generated by these technologies requires unprecedented storage and computational requirements. In this talk I will discuss my activities and approaches for addressing these challenges - our successes and many mistakes. I will then also discuss lessons learned and how the National Computational Infrastructure aims to empower biomedical researchers both locally and further afield. 

Biography

Bruno van Swinderen received a PhD in evolutionary biology from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. His postdoctoral work at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, California, led him to the scientific study of consciousness. Taking an evolutionary view, he developed novel paradigms to study perception in the smallest animal brains. His discoveries include uncovering neural correlates of sleep and selective attention in flies, as well as fundamental mechanisms of general anaesthesia. He has been running a cognitive neuroscience lab at the Queensland Brain Institute, in The University of Queensland, since 2008. His lab uses invertebrate models such as flies and worms to understand how the brain is able to block or prioritise sensory stimuli, as happens during sleep and attention. He is particularly interested in how sleep and attention might have co-evolved to optimise adaptive behaviour and is keen to promote research in simpler animal models to understand complex brain processes.