K Professor Co-Edits ‘Computational Neurology and Psychiatry’

Péter Érdi, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies, is the co-editor of a new book titled “Computational Neurology and Psychiatry.” He also is the co-author — along with two K alumni, Takumi Matsuzawa ’16 and Tibin John ’15 — of a paper included in that book. The paper is titled “Connecting Epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Disease: Modeling of Normal and Pathological Rhythmicity and Synaptic Plasticity Related to Amyloidβ (Aβ) Effects.”

Computational Neurology and Psychiatry
Péter Érdi is the co-editor of a new book titled “Computational Neurology and Psychiatry.”

Sometimes seeing more is a matter of new ways of looking. Such “new ways of looking” include the emerging scientific fields of computational neurology and computational psychiatry. The key word is “computational.” Researchers apply math and computer science to create computer models that simulate brain structures and brain activities associated with specific disorders (epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease, for example). Such simulations and new techniques of analyzing the copious amount of data that emerges from such simulations have the potential to reveal elements of brain structure and function associated with disease and disorders, elements that have heretofore been a mystery. In other words, these “new ways of looking” may result in seeing what’s never been seen before.

Computer modeling also offers advantages of cost and convenience compared to older ways (animal experimentation and laboratory set-up) of trying to model and see brain structure and (mal)function.

A book that pioneers these new scientific fields is exciting and important, says Péter:  “Adopting advanced computational methods such as modeling and data processing raises hopes that one day we will more effectively treat neurological and psychiatric disorders.”

In other news, Péter has been appointed vice president for membership of the International Neural Network Societies.

Alumnus Awarded Medical Fellowship

Phillip BystromPhilip Bystrom ’13 is one of only 18 students to receive the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowship, a very competitive and prestigious award usually given to medical students who have completed their third or fourth years. Phillip is in his third year at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) in Kalamazoo. He will forego his studies there for the 12 months of his fellowship, which he will spend in Kampala, Uganda, conducting clinical research centered around early detection of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-positive patients in resource-limited areas.

The fellowship well aligns with his intent to become an infectious diseases specialist who helps people in underdeveloped regions. Bystrom was born in Sweden and lived most of his youth in Bangkok, Thailand. He matriculated to K from Bangkok and earned his degree in chemistry with minors in physics and mathematics. His K experiential education included study abroad in Quito, Ecuador, shadowing a surgeon at the Pramangkut Military Hospital in Bangkok, serving as a chemistry lab teaching assistant at K, and working as a research assistant at University of Michigan. At medical school Bystom has been a trauma care unit volunteer and an ER scribe at Bronson Methodist Hospital. Bystrom recently left for Uganda and will return to Kalamazoo in July of 2017 to resume his third year of study at WMed.

Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine is a collaborative effort between Western Michigan University, Borgess Hospital and Bronson hospital, all located in Kalamazoo.