CINPLA News

Thesis “Effects of perineuronal nets on conductive and capacitive properties of neurons: Computational studies” 

Time and place: Dec. 11, 2023

Thesis title: “Extracellular Matric Molecules, Brain Plasticity, and Advancements in Calcium Imaging of Neural Activity ” 

Professor Christoph Koch is a world-reknowned neuroscientist currently working as Chief Scientist of the MindScope Program at the Allen Institute in Seattle. While visiting he will give two open seminars:

The Physical Substrate of Consciousness – Progress and Problems

Building and Operating Brain Observatories – What Have We Learned?

The visual artist Ellen Karin Mæhlum has been making a collection of prints based on microscopy pictures of brain cells from CINPLA. Images shows neurons surrounded by perineuronal nets.

Wireless solutions in brain research have so far been limited
by low data transmission, short recording time or bulky batteries and devices. Our objective is to develop a wireless Micro Electro-Optical system (MEMS) device for long-term, recording and manipulations of brain activity in rodents. 

Hvert år kårer Matematisk-naturvitenskapelig studentutvalg (MNSU) den beste foreleseren ved Det matematisk-naturvitenskapelige fakultet. I 2021 falt valget på professor Marianne Fyhn. Studentene sier hun er en «kunnskapsrik og engasjerende foreleser som virkelig vekker studentenes interesse for faget."

Join the team for a 3 year position as PhD candidate. The aim of the current project is to determine how social and spatial information are integrated in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. The candidate will use state-of-the-art electrophysiological recordings combined with optogenetic manipulations of brain activity and measurement of animal behavior. 

Deadline for application: 17/10-2021

An updated suite of viral vectors for in vivo calcium imaging using local and retro-orbital injections

We show that systemic injections of PHP.eB AAVs to express GECIs is a highly promising technique for imaging neural activity and circumvent the need for transgenic GECI expressing mouse lines. We also establish the use of novel soma-targeted GECIs that outperform current Ca2+ indicators using both systemic and local virus injections.

In order to navigate you have to keep track of direction, speed and distance. Grid cells constitute a mental map of space almost like the brains GPS. It has been suggested that rhythmic brain waves (theta oscillations) carry information about speed and direction - essential for grid cell coding. 

NRK Viten: Nye hjernefunn forklarer hvordan vi klarer å lage mentale kart

A reliable sense of space is essential for daily life and memory formation. Breaking down the extracellular matrix around grid cells makes the mental map unstable [Nature Communications 11th of January, 2021].

The CompSci program at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo will recruit 32 PhD fellowship positions in two calls.

Read about the work of Elise Holter Thompson at Forskning.no (Norwegian only): Lagring av minner i hjernen – hva kan det si oss om demens?

On December 11th, Elise Holter Thompson successfully defended her PhD thesis "Perineuronal nets in memory processing and behavior."

Listen to Gaute Einevoll talk about neuroscience and technology in these podcast episodes (Norwegian only):

On November 20th, Marte Julie Sætra successfully defended her PhD thesis "Computational modeling of ion concentration dynamics and metabolic oxygen consumption in brain tissue."

On October 21st, Mikkel Elle Lepperød successfully defended his PhD thesis “Dissecting neuronal circuits for navigation in experiments and models.”

On September 25th, Charlotte Christensen successfully defended her PhD thesis “Balancing stability and plasticity - perturbations of extracellular matrix and inhibitory activity in the mature grid cell network.”

'Seminar on novel probes and AI technology for brain-machine interfaces'

We are excited to announce two seminars on January 16th and the defense of Alessio Buccino on the 17th, all in Bikuben, Kristine Bonnevies' hus, Blindern.

Doctoral candidate Alessio Paolo Buccino at the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, is defending the thesis“A computationally-assisted approach to neural extracellular electrophysiology with multi-electrode arrays”for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

Position as PhD Research Fellow available at the Department of Biosciences.

Gaute Einevoll has started a new podcast called "Vett og vitenskap".

Earlier this year the Research Council of Norway (RCN) announced 270 MNOK for research on digital innovation, of which a CINPLA group has been awarded 16 MNOK for a new project.

Congratulations to four members of CINPLA for their award winning poster presentations this summer, in Norway and in Spain.