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Erik Fransén  
Computational Science and Technology
School of Computer Science and Communication
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden  

also affiliated with:
Stockholm Brain Institute                                             

KTH SBI



THIS PAGE IS AS OF 2017 NO LONGER MAINTAINED. Please visit my page via the university portal.

https://www.kth.se/profile/erikf




-What are the mechanisms in the brain that makes us learn and remember?
-More specifically, what are the molecular mechanisms in synapses that enables learning and memory?
-What computational operations are performed by the molecules in the postsynaptic density?
We study these questions by computational modeling using data from experimental partners.

    In our research, we study mechanisms of synaptic transmission and mechanisms of how this transmission is altered as a result of learning and for the purpose of memory encoding. In this work, we use mathematical modeling and computer simulation. The synapse and its ion channels and postsynaptic density proteins are described by differential equations which are solved numerically in a specialized computer program. Results of the simulations are compared to experiments where the biochemical or electrical activity was measured. We work together with biomedical experimental labs, for this project dr Seth Grant.


-What activity in a sensory nerve fiber make you experience pain?
-What have changed in a nerve fiber when a patient suffers from chronic pain?
-Further, how can we affect a diseased nerve fiber to reduce pain?
We study these questions by computational modeling using data from experimental partners.

    In our research, we study mechanisms behind chronic pain. In particular we study the changes after inflammation, injury or disease of nerves in legs and arms. We also study how properties of malfunctioning neurons can be changed towards more healthy function by mimicing effects by drugs on ion channels. We apply these methods to pain and epilepsy. In this work, we use mathematical modeling and computer simulation. The neurons, ion channels and biochemical reactions are described by differential equations which are solved numerically in a specialized computer program. Results of the simulations are compared to experiments where the electrical activity was measured, either in a patient, healthy volunteer, an animal under aenesthesia or in a piece of brain tisssure or a cultivated neuron. We work together with biomedical experimental labs, for example dr Martin Schmelz.

    Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 2014 to John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser for groundbreaking studies of how hippocampus and entorhinal cortex provide our brain with the capacity for mapping the space around us so that we can locate ourselves and navigate in the world.  In our laboratory, we studied properties of entorhinal cortex neurons and hippocampal neurons and how these properties relate to the grid fields that Moser & Moser have found, and how the rhythmicity of this brain region, fundamental to the studies pioneered by O'Keefe, emerges from interactions between cellular and synaptic network interactions. Read more about our work here.

    Popular science article: Read more about our work in computational pharmacology here...

    Read more about highlights in our research here...