I will present a biologically-based mathematical model that accounts for several features of human sleep and demonstrate how particular features depend on interactions between a circadian pacemaker and a sleep homeostat. The model is made up of regions of cells that interact with each other to cause transitions between sleep and wake as well as between REM and NREM sleep. Analysis of the mathematical mechanisms in the model yields insights into potential biological mechanisms underlying sleep and sleep disorders including stress-induced insomnia and fatal familial insomnia.

TBA

Reaction-diffusion processes occur in many materials with microstructure such as biological cells, steel or concrete. The main difficulty in modelling and simulating accurately such processes is to account for the fine microstructure of the material. One method of upscaling multi-scale problems, which has proven reliable for obtaining feasible macroscopic models, is the method of periodic homogenisation. The talk will give an introduction to multi-scale modelling of chemical mechanisms in domains with microstructure as well as to the method of periodic homogenisation. Moreover, certain aspects particularly relevant in upscaling reaction-diffusion processes in biological cells will be discussed.

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