Javier Cervera
Javier Cervera works on quantitative models of bioelectric signalling in cells and tissues. With Salvador Mafe and Michael Levin, they simulated how ion channels and gap junctions set membrane voltage in multicellular groups, and they also took part in a Xenopus brain rescue experiment123. Later authors cite this work for stable voltage states and for voltage acting on transcription46.
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- researcher
- In the library
- 5 works, named in 12 passages elsewhere
Models of voltage memory
Several review authors cite Cervera's earlier models when they discuss memory outside the nervous system. Baluška and Levin say computational studies showed that cells with ion channels can hold a stable memory of resting potential, and that this does not require neuronal identity5. Neuhof, Levin and Rechavi list stable bioelectrical circuit modes among the kinds of biological memory. They also call for quantitative models of how such states are stored and edited in physiological circuits, citing Cervera and colleagues7.
Gap junctions and regions
In 2021, Riol, Cervera, Levin and Mafe simulated two regions of cells that shared the same single-cell parameters but started in different polarization states and carried different connexin types. They asked whether an inner patch of depolarized cells could resist normalization by the surrounding polarized cells2. A 2026 review reads the Cervera simulations as showing that junction conductance decides whether single-cell voltage changes are buffered by neighbours or persist as local regions4.
Experiment and adaptation
Cervera is a co-author of the 2020 Xenopus study. Neural expression of the HCN2 channel protected embryos from nicotine-induced brain defects, with 27% of tadpoles affected1. In the 2024 model, Cervera, Levin and Mafe blocked a potassium channel and studied how a compensating channel could be upregulated to restore polarization3. George and Bates credit Cervera, Mafe and Levin with proposing that membrane potential could regulate transcription directly6.
embryos with dorsal blastomere (neural) Hcn2-WT mRNA injection showed significant rescue or protection of nicotine-induced abnormal brain morphology (27% tadpoles with brain defects)
Pai VP, Cervera J, Mafe S, Willocq V, Lederer EK, Levin M, 2020 · HCN2 Channel-Induced Rescue of Brain Teratogenesis via Local and Long-Range… · open at passage 20We assume that these regions are initially in different single-cell polarization states and study if the inner patch of abnormally depolarized cells (low absolute value of V) can resist normalization
Riol A, Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2021 · Cell Systems Bioelectricity: How Different Intercellular Gap Junctions Could… · open at passage 13Our adaptation process considers that a potassium channel which regulates the physiological cell potential is blocked, e.g. by an external divalent cation or a blocking molecule.
Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2024 · Multicellular adaptation to electrophysiological perturbations analyzed by… · open at passage 4Cervera et al. demonstrated through simulations of multicellular ensembles that intercellular junction conductance is the parameter determining whether individual-cell Vmem perturbations are buffered
Acharya SK, Ngeow WC, Hariri F, Liew FF, Choon YF, 2026 · A Convergence Model of Bioelectric, Gap Junctional, and Hippo-YAP Signalling in… · open at passage 45Recent computational studies have revealed conditions under which cells expressing ion channels can keep a stable memory with respect to resting potential
Baluška F, Levin M, 2016 · On Having No Head: Cognition throughout Biological Systems · open at passage 19Salvador Mafe, Michael Levin, and Javier Cervera have proposed that membrane potential could regulate transcription directly (Cervera et al., 2020; Levin, 2021).
George LF, Bates EA, 2022 · Mechanisms Underlying Influence of Bioelectricity in Development · open at passage 49Quantitative models must be developed to explain how stable states can be stored, and edited, in physiological circuits (Cervera et al., 2015; Law and Levin, 2015; Levin, 2014a).
Neuhof M, Levin M, Rechavi O, 2016 · Vertically- and horizontally-transmitted memories - the fading boundaries… · open at passage 60
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