In September 2019 our group has organized an international scientific meeting Islet Society Meeting 2019: : https://www.isletsociety2019.eu/ . The main organizers were prof. dr. Marjan Slak Rupnik and assoc. prof. dr. Andraž Stožer. Several world-leading researchers have participated and gave lectures on the meeting. The meeting was organized on behalf of the Islet Society, an international learned society interested in research involving the Islets of Langerhans, particularly in the context of diabetes mellitus.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 000000Teaching activity at a case-based seminar for medical students with a basic Physiology background in a total amount of 32 hours at the Medical University of Vienna, Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Institute of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research, Austria, October 29th-February 25th, 2020
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 19432451Celice beta v organih, ki jih imenujemo Langerhansovi otočki, po draženju z glukozo oscilatorno spreminjajo znotrajcelično koncentracijo kalcijevih ionov. Te oscilacije so nujne za normalno izločanje inzulina, to pa je nujno za normalno homeostazo glukoze. Heteroin homologne povezave preko presledkovnih stikov med celicami v otočku so najverjetnejši mehanicistični substrat, ki omogoča prenos informacije preko otočka, ki tvori kompleksni sincicij medsebojno povezanih endokrinih celic. Veliko bioloških sistemov izraža samoorganizirano kritično dinamiko s potenčno porazdelitvijo sistemskih opazljivk, med njimi tudi mreža povezanih celic beta. Da bi bolje razumeli populacijsko dinamiko, smo sistematično raziskali mehanizme, ki povzročijo kritično in superkritično obnašanje s pomočjo eksperimentalnega in teoretičnega pristopa. Uporabili smo konfokalno snemanje sprememb znotrajcelične koncentracije kalcijevih ionov v populaciji celic beta, posnetih v akutno pripravljeni mišji rezini trebušne slinavke. Pokazali smo, da se celice beta na draženje z glukozo odzovejo bifazično in koncentracijsko odvisno. Prva faza odziva, imenovana aktivacijska faza, je kazala znake kritičnosti med draženjem z nizko glukozo, opazili smo potenčno porazdelitev velikosti kalcijevih valov, medtem ko so patofiziološko visoke koncentracije glukoze sprožile odzive, ki so bili hitrejši, manj povezani in superkritični. Za naslednjo fazo odziva, imenovano faza platoja, so bili značilni globalni kalcijevi valovi ne glede na koncentracijo glukoze. V naslednjem koraku smo izgradili fenomenološki model sklopljenih vzdražnih celic in tako želeli bolje razumeti eksperimentalno pridobljene kompleksne vzorce aktivnosti. Dobro prekrivanje računskih in eksperimentalnih podatkov smo pridobili, če smo v modelu upoštevali heterogene in od dražljaja odvisne časovne zamike, variabilnost v nivoju vzdražnosti in heterogenost v sklopitvi med celicami. Takšen pristop omogoča določitev ključnih mehanizmov samoorganizirane kritičnosti na nivoju celic beta, ki v otočkih proizvajajo inzulin.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 97940481The past two decades have witnessed the coming of age of network science as the central paradigm behind some of the most fascinating discoveries of the 21st century. The flexibility to define network nodes and edges to represent different aspects of real-life systems has also been employed to examine diverse biological settings at different scales. In the lecture I shall review the recent advances in the study of complex biological systems that were inspired and enabled by methods of network science. Specific focus will be given to the extraction of functional connectivity maps from high-resolution confocal calcium imaging in acute pancreas tissue slices to assess the collective behaviour of insulin secreting beta cell populations. Describing the intercellular connectivity patterns by means of network language has not only revealed that beta cell networks share many architectural similarities with several other real-life networks, such as small-worldness, heterogeneity, and modularity, but also leads to important new insights into the relationship between cellular metabolic activity and the orchestration of collective behaviour. Finally, I will concentrate on the emerging field of multilayer networks and highlight the potential offered by this framework in exploring the complex organization of tissues in both health and disease.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 512967224Član programske skupine doc. dr. Marko Gosak je član uredniškega odbora pri reviji Computational and mathematical methods in medicine.
C.06 Editorial board membership
COBISS.SI-ID: 518832409