Salvador Mafe
Salvador Mafe works on the theory of cell membrane voltage, often with Michael Levin and Javier Cervera. The held works include a Xenopus study of channel-based rescue of brain defects12, models of how gap junctions hold tissue regions in different voltage states34, and a model of channel upregulation after a perturbation67. A later review credits the group with proposing that voltage can regulate transcription5.
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- researcher
- In the library
- 5 works, named in 1 passages elsewhere
Brain rescue in Xenopus
Mafe is a co-author of a 2020 study in Xenopus tadpoles. Embryos injected in neural-fated dorsal blastomeres with Hcn2-WT mRNA were largely protected from nicotine-induced brain defects. Of these tadpoles, 27% showed defects1. Embryos given the mRNA without nicotine did not differ significantly from controls. The authors concluded that overexpressing HCN2-WT channels in neural tissue significantly counteracts the teratogenic effect of nicotine on brain patterning2.
Gap junctions and regions
In a 2021 theoretical paper, Mafe and co-authors asked how different gap junctions could keep regions of cells in distinct bioelectrical states, so that tissue is regionalized into patterns3. In the simulations, all cells shared the same single-cell parameters. The regions differed only in their initial polarized or depolarized state and in their connexin expression. The test was whether an inner patch of depolarized cells could resist normalization by the polarized surround4.
Adaptation and later use
A 2024 model examines how a cell population adapts when a potassium channel is blocked. It asks how a compensating rescue channel could be upregulated to restore polarization6. In the deterministic version, transcription of that channel is regulated negatively by cell potential, as a lumped phenomenological rate7. A 2022 review by George and Bates describes Mafe, Levin and Cervera as proposing that membrane potential could regulate transcription directly5.
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 20Thus, overexpression of HCN2-WT channels in neural tissue is able to significantly counteract the teratogenic effects of nicotine exposure on brain patterning.
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 aim here at theoretically exploring how the spatial distribution of different gap junctions can maintain regions of cells in distinct bioelectrical states, thus regionalizing tissue into specific patterns.
Riol A, Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2021 · Cell Systems Bioelectricity: How Different Intercellular Gap Junctions Could… · open at passage 4study if the inner patch of abnormally depolarized cells (low absolute value of V) can resist normalization against the surrounding bulk of normally polarized cells (high absolute value of V)
Riol A, Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2021 · Cell Systems Bioelectricity: How Different Intercellular Gap Junctions Could… · open at passage 13Salvador 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 49In our model, we analyze how a rescue channel that conducts outward positive currents could be upregulated to compensate for the electrophysiologic
Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2024 · Multicellular adaptation to electrophysiological perturbations analyzed by… · open at passage 4In the deterministic model, we introduce an effective negative regulation for the cell potential-dependent transcription rate of the res channel.
Cervera J, Levin M, Mafe S, 2024 · Multicellular adaptation to electrophysiological perturbations analyzed by… · open at passage 16
2016
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2020
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2021
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2024
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