María Hernández Mesa defended her thesis
Published:
On Friday 4 October at 15:15, María Hernández Mesa defended her PhD thesis "A Computational Study on the Influence of Structural Organization of Receptors on Calcium Signaling in Excitable Cells".
The defence took place in Kristen Nygaard's hall (5370), Ole-Johan Dahl's house (Gaustadalléen 23B), and on Zoom.
Main research findings
Excitable cells, like neurons and heart cells, rely on electrical signals for essential functions such as heartbeats, learning, and memory. Calcium ions are crucial in these processes, especially within specialized structures like cardiac dyads in heart cells and dendritic spines in neurons, which help control calcium levels for precise signal transmission. Studying these tiny structures experimentally is challenging. In her thesis, María uses computational models to explore how the arrangement of calcium receptors affects signaling in these cells. In heart cells, clustering calcium receptors in the dyads enhances calcium sparks, vital for maintaining normal heart function. During heart failure, changes in receptor clustering and spatial phosphorylation patterns modulate the strength and duration of calcium sparks, potentially affecting heart performance. In neurons, the shape of cell membranes significantly influences calcium signaling. The clustering of receptors in curved regions of the dendritic spines boosts calcium influx, improving signal strength between neurons and enhancing processes like learning and memory. María’s thesis demonstrates how computational tools can unravel the complex relationship between receptor organization, cell structure, and calcium signaling in excitable cells, providing new insights into heart and brain function.
Prior to the defence, at 13:15 on the same day, María presented her trial lecture "Modeling long-distance calcium signalling in astrocytic networks and its impact on neuronal activity" in the same location.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Eric A. Sobie, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA
- Associate Professor Suhita Nadkarni, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
- Professor Tor Skeie, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
- Senior Research Scientist Kimberly McCabe, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
- Professor Aslak Tveito, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway
- Associate Professor William Edward Louch, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway
- Professor Padmini Rangamani, University of California, San Diego, USA
Read more at the UiO Department of Informatics webpage.