Towards the development of an in silico model for the zebrafish action potential

The heart beats 3-4 billion times in one’s lifetime, while adapting its activity to meet the body’s continuously changing physiological demands. This adaptation is driven partly by the central nervous system, which sends signals to a network of nerves in the heart, known as the intracardiac nervous system (IcNS). Many believe the IcNS acts as a ‘little brain in the heart’, by combining nervous system inputs and local information to rapidly alter the heart’s output in response to changes in its environment. Yet a clear understanding of the inner workings of this system remains elusive. The zebrafish has emerged as a powerful tool to study the IcNS in the whole heart, which is limited in mammals. The goal of my proposed project is to gain further understanding of the IcNS through the creation of a zebrafish-specific mathematical model, which I will bring back to Canada and combine with my experimental work to generate new fundamental knowledge about IcNS function and its importance in the healthy and diseased heart.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alex Quinn

Student:

Partner:

Politecnico di Milano

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: