Angus Silver

Robin Angus Silver FRS[1] is Professor of Neuroscience and a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at University College London.[2][3][4] His laboratory studies neurotransmission and artificial neural networks by combining in vitro and in vivo experimental approaches with quantitative analysis and computational models developed in silico.[5][6][7]

Angus Silver

FRS
Angus Silver at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2017
Born
Robin Angus Silver
Alma materCoventry Polytechnic (BSc)
University College London (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
Neuroinformatics
Microscopy
ThesisCalcium as a second messenger in neuronal growth cones (1990)
InfluencesStuart Cull-Candy
Websitesilverlab.org

Education

Silver was educated at Coventry Polytechnic where he graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Sciences.[3] He completed postgraduate study at University College London where he was awarded a PhD in Neuroscience in 1990 for research investigating calcium signalling and second messenger systems in neural growth cones.[8]

Research and career

Silver's work has contributed to our understanding of synaptic and neuronal function and to information processing in the brain.[9] By developing and applying methods for quantifying synaptic properties his work has shown how central synapses transmit and transform signals and can sustain high frequency signalling. He has quantified the functional properties of electrical synapses and established how neurons can perform certain arithmetic operations.[1][10]

Using theoretical approaches, he has provided insights into the structure and function of neural circuits, showing that synaptic connectivity within the cerebellar input layer is optimal for encoding information and separating overlapping activity patterns.[1]

Silver's group have developed new tools for studying circuit function. These include a high-speed random access 3D scanning fluorescence microscope that uses an acousto-optic lens to scan and focus the laser beam, enabling measurement of spatially distributed neuronal activity at high speed. He has also coordinated the development of software for building models of neural circuits, (neuroConstruct),[6] a language for standardising model descriptions (NeuroML),[7] and a repository of standardized models and infrastructure for collaborative model development, OpenSourceBrain.[11][5]

Silver's research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), European Research Council (ERC) and the Wellcome Trust.[12]

Awards and honours

Silver was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017.[1]

References
  1. Anon (2017). "Professor Angus Silver FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --"Terms, conditions and policies | Royal Society". Archived from the original on 2016-11-11. Retrieved 2016-03-09.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. Angus Silver publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  3. Anon (2017). "Professor Angus Silver at UCL". iris.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  4. Angus Silver publications from Europe PubMed Central
  5. Eglen, Stephen J; Marwick, Ben; Halchenko, Yaroslav O; Hanke, Michael; Sufi, Shoaib; Gleeson, Padraig; Silver, R Angus; Davison, Andrew P; Lanyon, Linda; Abrams, Mathew; Wachtler, Thomas; Willshaw, David J; Pouzat, Christophe; Poline, Jean-Baptiste (2017). "Toward standard practices for sharing computer code and programs in neuroscience". Nature Neuroscience. 20 (6): 770–773. doi:10.1038/nn.4550. ISSN 1097-6256. PMC 6386137. PMID 28542156.
  6. Gleeson, Padraig; Steuber, Volker; Silver, R. Angus (2007). "neuroConstruct: A Tool for Modeling Networks of Neurons in 3D Space". Neuron. 54 (2): 219–235. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.03.025. ISSN 0896-6273. PMC 1885959. PMID 17442244.
  7. Friston, Karl J.; Gleeson, Padraig; Crook, Sharon; Cannon, Robert C.; Hines, Michael L.; Billings, Guy O.; Farinella, Matteo; Morse, Thomas M.; Davison, Andrew P.; Ray, Subhasis; Bhalla, Upinder S.; Barnes, Simon R.; Dimitrova, Yoana D.; Silver, R. Angus (2010). "NeuroML: A Language for Describing Data Driven Models of Neurons and Networks with a High Degree of Biological Detail". PLOS Computational Biology. 6 (6): e1000815. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000815. ISSN 1553-7358. PMC 2887454. PMID 20585541.
  8. Silver, Robin Angus (1990). Calcium as a second messenger in neuronal growth cones. london.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of London. OCLC 941024084.
  9. Rothman, Jason Seth; Kocsis, Laszlo; Herzog, Etienne; Nusser, Zoltan; Silver, Robin Angus (2016). "Physical determinants of vesicle mobility and supply at a central synapse". eLife. 5 (e15133). doi:10.7554/eLife.15133. ISSN 2050-084X. PMC 5025287. PMID 27542193.
  10. Silver, R. Angus (2010). "Neuronal arithmetic". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 11 (7): 474–489. doi:10.1038/nrn2864. ISSN 1471-003X. PMC 4750293. PMID 20531421.
  11. Anon (2017). "Open Source Brain: Modelling the brain, together". OpenSourceBrain.org.
  12. Anon (2017). "Members of the Silver Lab". silverlab.org/members.


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