Stephen J. Eglen
Fellowship 2013
ARCHIVE
Stephen Eglen gained his first degree in Cognitive Science at Nottingham University, UK. His PhD from Sussex (UK) was in the area of Computational Neuroscience, examining the role of spontaneous neural activity upon development of nerve connections in the visual system. In his postdoctoral work at Edinburgh and Washington University at St. Louis (USA), he mostly studied the development of the structure and function of the vertebrate retina. Dr. Eglen joined the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics as a lecturer in June 2004 and was made senior lecturer in 2006. He is a founding member of the department's Computational Biology group and a Course Director of the Masters programme in Computational Biology.
His current research interests are:
- Modelling the development of nerve connections.
- Statistical analysis of multi-electrode array recordings.
- Spatial pattern formation in the nervous system.
- Reproducible research in neuroscience.
Computational investigations into the development of retinotopic projections in mouse superior colliculus
Nervous systems are complex computational devices. Most of this complexity derives not from the intricacies of individual neurons, but from the ways in which neurons wire together form networks. A key problem in developmental neuroscience is to understand the processes by which neurons connect to each other. Knowledge of these basic processes should help us understand not only how normal development occurs, but has clinical implications for restoring connectivity that has been disrupted by various illnesses or injuries.
During his fellowship at USIAS dr. Eglen will investigate, in collaboration with USIAS fellow Dr Michael Reber, how neural connections from the retina wire up to the brain. In particular, they will investigate the nature of the molecular cues that guide the development of neural connections. This is an exciting interdisciplinary project combining the experimental work of Dr Reber with the theoretical expertise in modelling of Dr. Eglen which will contribute to our understanding how to simulate these developmental processes. The combination of those two approaches would help to address two important questions. 1. How are these molecular cues graded across the retina? 2: How can these molecular cues instruct the formation of connections? A better understanding of these processes can lead to more general insights in how the brain is wired and rewired over time, and may in the future help to develop important applications for restoring connectivity and “repairing” the brain.
