With this funding, she continues her research with collaborators in the USA, specialising in the field of computational neuroscience on a project titled, “A unified framework for modelling spikes, epilepsy, and spreading depression in brain tissue”.
The aim of the project is to develop next-generation mathematical models for studying epilepsy on a computer. The model will be the first of its kind to combine network dynamics with ion concentration dynamics in a biophysically consistent manner. This will open up a number of new possibilities in the field of epilepsy because we can move away from the simplistic assumption that the ion concentrations in the brain are constant and study what kind of effects such changes have on epileptic seizures.
The funds will allow Sætra to go on a research stay at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 2023 to collaborate with one of the foremost experts in the field, Prof. Yoichiro Mori, as well as presenting the project at the world's largest conference for Neuroscience, Neuroscience 2023. More information about this project is available from Epilepsiforbundet’s article on the sixprojects funded this year.
