This seminar is for the Chancellors Faculty Excellence Program: Quantitative and Computational Developmental Biology Cluster Hire.

Many applications in the life sciences involve unknown system parameters that must be estimated using little to no prior information. In addition, these parameters may be time-varying and possibly subject to structural characteristics such as periodicity. We show how nonlinear Bayesian filtering techniques can be employed in this setting to estimate unknown, time-varying parameters, while…

Dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area play a key role in signalling motivational information. Modulation of this signalling by drugs is also key to the development of addiction. These neurons have several firing modes ranging from periodic low frequency activity to higher frequency bursts. In vitro, intrinsically generated bursts are seen, while in vivo…