The brain is inarguably the most complex organ in the body, and disruption to brain activity can have fatal consequences for the organism.
The brain’s resilience relies on high levels of redundancy to ensure continued function under most circumstances, as well as built-in homeostatic mechanisms to stabilise neural activity and maintain interhemispheric and excitatory/inhibitory balance.
Following stroke, direct tissue damage and disconnection of remote brain areas causes functional disruption that can span multiple domains. Inhibitory neurons have a primary role in post stroke recovery for their ability to modulate brain plasticity in both the perilesional region and remote areas. Our recent work shows that optogenetically induced gamma frequency entrainment, targeting interneurons, offers neuroprotection after stroke.
Meet our newest stroke researcher: Dr Matilde Balbi
Group leader
Dr Matilde Balbi
Group Leader, Neuromodulation and homeostatic processes
Senior Research Fellow
+61 (0)432 202 911
m.balbi@uq.edu.au
@matildebalbi
balbilab.com
UQ Researcher Profile
Our approach
The Balbi lab employs a multi-level approach, combining in vivo imaging techniques, brain stimulation—including but not exclusively optogenetics—and AI driven, individually tailored recovery paradigms in behaving rodents, to investigate intrinsic neuroprotective mechanisms of the brain under pathological conditions such as stroke.
Research areas
- Stroke recovery
- Neurodegeneration and protection
- Interneurons
- Brain oscillations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Imaging
- Behaviour
- Brain stimulation
- Homeostatic processes
