Chemogenetic Silencing of Differentiating Cortical Neurons Impairs Dendritic and Axonal Growth.

Electrical activity is considered a key driver for the neurochemical and morphological maturation of neurons and the formation of neuronal networks. Designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) are tools for controlling neuronal activity at the single cell level by triggering specific G protein signaling. Our objective was to investigate if prolonged silencing of differentiating cortical neurons can influence dendritic and axonal maturation.

Structure-based knowledge acquisition from electronic lab notebooks for research data provenance documentation.

Background: Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) are used to document experiments and investigations in the wet-lab. Protocols in ELNs contain a detailed description of the conducted steps including the necessary information to understand the procedure and the raised research data as well as to reproduce the research investigation. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether such ELN protocols can be used to create semantic documentation of the provenance of research data by the use of ontologies and linked data methodologies.

OSS-DBS: Open-source simulation platform for deep brain stimulation with a comprehensive automated modeling.

In this study, we propose a new open-source simulation platform that comprises computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering tools for highly automated evaluation of electric field distribution and neural activation during Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). It will be shown how a Volume Conductor Model (VCM) is constructed and examined using Python-controlled algorithms for generation, discretization and adaptive mesh refinement of the computational domain, as well as for incorporation of heterogeneous and anisotropic properties of the tissue and allocation of neuron models. The utilization of the platform is facilitated by a collection of predefined input setups and quick visualization routines.

PROVenance Patterns in Numerical Modelling and Finite Element Simulation Processes of Bio-electric Systems.

The reproducibility of scientific results gains increasing attention. In the context of biomedical engineering, this applies to experimental studies of three different kinds: in-vivo, in-vitro, and in-silico. Numerical modelling and finite element simulation of bio-electric systems are intricate processes involving manifold steps.

Requirements for Documenting Electrical Cell Stimulation Experiments for Replicability and Numerical Modeling.

Thorough documentation of biological experiments is necessary for their replicability. This becomes even more evident when individual steps of in vitro wet-lab experiments are to be incorporated into computer simulation models. In the highly interdisciplinary field of electrical stimulation of biological cells, not only biological but also physical aspects play a crucial role.