Special issue: The Shapeshifters; Plasticity from Cells to Society
An Open Call to submit manuscripts for a special issue about Plasticity for Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
Plasticity, the ability to be molded in various forms while maintaining a core identity, is a term that is increasingly used within various fields of science, e.g. neuroscience, plant- and cell biology, and within the humanities. However, the meaning and use of plasticity varies between different fields. What type of epistemological work does the term plasticity do in different scholarly fields? Can a general theory of plasticity be developed that will encompass some core features but also allow space for unique usages? These are the questions that this special issue poses, and will try to provide and answer from various interdisciplinary perspectives.
Guest editors
This special issue is edited by the members of the Plasticity consortium, which was formed to perform interdisciplinary research as part of the Centre for Unusual Collaborations.
Loai Abdelmohsen (Eindhoven University, The Netherlands).
Onur Başak (Utrecht Medical Center, The Netherlands).
Yaron Caspi (National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan).
Jeff Diamanti (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
Esmee Geerken, (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands).
Tamalone van den Eijnden (University of Twente, The Netherlands).
Keywords: Plasticity, emergence, resilience, robustness, adaptation, metabolism, capacity and ability to change, system sciences, system change, complexity, tipping points, social transitions, transformation, affordances, circular causality, permissive causality, intentionality/volition, meta plasticity, meaning making, disruptive plasticity
Plasticity Special Issue Information
This special Issues, on the theme of “plasticity” explores the concept of plasticity across academic domains and beyond. The guest editors for this issue are group of scholars from different fields, from neuroscience, to cell biology, earth sciences, social sciences, media studies, environmental humanities and arts. We are united by a fascination for what the concept of plasticity means within, between and beyond our field of research.
We invite researchers from all disciplines, societal stakeholders, and the arts to come to question what it means to be a shape within a shapeshifting process, a form within a form – changing, adapting, evolving, or mutating, along with its environment, and to submit these thoughts, formulated within manuscripts, to this special issue; The Shapeshifters; plasticity from cells to society.
Specifically, we invite scholars as individual or as collectives from all disciplines to submit manuscripts that connect, bridge and define plasticity within and between various fields; we are especially keen on ideas exploring how plasticity may be of use in fields that currently do not use the term.
Scholars are invited (but not restricted) to think along four interdisciplinary themes, that has been discussed in four dedicated panel discussions during a symposium organized in Amsterdam, May 30th /31st, 2024. These are: (I) Complexity and Circular Causation, (ii) Environment, (iii)Time, and (iv) Epistemic Cultures. For a full description of the symposium, see the Shapeshifters Symposium Footage may be found here: Shapeshifters Symposium Recording.
The shapeshifters symposium was a blast! We were challenged to go across the boundaries of disciplines not as mere tourists, by as migrating researchers who brought their disciplinary culture and attempted to synthesize it with the new concepts that we come across. The special issue, which will be led by a white paper, will reflect the ideas that sprout out of these two day think tank. [Onur Başak]
Manuscript submission information
Submission Deadline: You are invited to submit your manuscript at any time before the submission deadline of 1st of April, 2025.
We invite and encourage authors to submit their original and high-quality manuscripts to this special issue. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process by at least two independent reviewers to ensure high-quality contributions and scientific validity. Papers will be published on-line immediately after acceptance.
Please submit your manuscript through the journal manuscript submission system. Importantly, once submission on the electronic platform was completed, please send an email to the guest editor: e.geerken@uu.nl to inform about the manuscript submission. Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively through the above-mentioned link on the journal’s submission system. Any submissions made through other channels, or ones where the guest editors was not informed, will not be considered for inclusion in this special issue.
Please ensure you read the Guide for Authors before writing your manuscript. Any submissions lacking the correct formatting, declarations, ethical approvals, or related materials will not be allowed to proceed to the review stage. If the manuscripts fail to meet the standards in terms of English language, content, or relevance, they will be declined. For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact the following corresponding Guest Editors, Dr. Yaron Caspi or Dr. Esmee Geerken, E-mails: e.geerken@uu.nl; ycaspi@ntu.edu.tw
PLASTICITY SPONSORS
This special issue is made possible with the support of:
The Alliance (Wageningen University, Technical University Eindhoven, Utrecht University, Utrecht Medical Centre Utrecht)
New gene for Parkinson’s disease discovered
In a new study published in Nature Genetics, Paul Hop and colleagues describe the discovery of a gene responsible for a heritable form of Parkinson’s disease. The study was an international collaboration coordinated by the Kenna lab and multiple partners in the US and Italy. The research team used the RVAT software package developed by the Kenna lab and specialized computational infrastructure to analyze DNA from over 2,100 patients with familial Parkinson’s disease and 70,000 volunteers. The partnership with project MinE, an independent initiative to unravel the genetic basis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis made the scale of the analyses possible.
“We’re very excited about this finding. This was the largest genetic analysis of familial Parkinson’s disease to date, and we believe that the discovery of the RAB32 mutation and it’s effect on LRRK2 open up important new research lines” – Paul Hop
Paul Hop is a PhD student at the UMC Utrecht Brain Center under the supervision of Kevin Kenna and Jan Veldink. Paul is also a lead developer for the RVAT analysis package. His analysis revealed a mutation in the RAB32 gene that significantly increased the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Subsequent investigations of this mutation in laboratory grown cell models revealed that the mutation led to abnormal increases in the activity of a key Parkinson’s related protein called LRRK2. Such abnormal increases in LRRK2 activity are important in Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, research community is already exploring this increase as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Until now, only a handful of genes have been definitively implicated in heritable forms of Parkinson’s disease. The discovery of the RAB32 mutation and its effect on the LRRK2 protein are therefore an important step forward.
For more information about the study please see:
Stress eating: hypothalamic control over dopamine system drives bingeing
Does stress eating sound familiar? Stress can increase the intake of high caloric food, which can contribute to obesity and eating disorders, but the neurobiology underlying this process is not clear. In a new paper out in Nature Communications the lab of Frank Meye describes how stress changes synaptic strength from the Lateral Hypothalamus (LHA) to the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) midbrain dopamine system to drive binge eating behavior.
First author Louisa Linders observed in mice that social stress resulted in binge-like intake of high caloric fat. Calcium recordings done by Lefkothea Patrikiou and Evelien Schut showed that LHA glutamatergic neurons controlling the VTA were responsive to such social stress, as well as to fat intake. Using patch-clamp electrophysiological approaches, Louisa went on to show that social stress strengthened the glutamatergic synaptic connection from the LHA to the VTA. Optogenetic tweaking of the strength of these LHA-VTA synapses proved critical in regulating whether stress eating took place. Overall, this paper highlights an important causal role of stress-induced plasticity in the synaptic connection from the lateral hypothalamus to the midbrain dopamine reward system for stress-driven food intake.
“I’m excited that we can share our findings on how stress changes synaptic function to causally contribute to stress eating.” Louisa Linders
The work was performed in the Translational Neuroscience Dept of the UMC Utrecht Brain Center. Check out the tweet by Frank Meye as well.
We look forward to seeing the upcoming work from the Meye group!
Studying synapses in specific neural circuits
In recent years the combination of brain slice electrophysiological recordings of neurons in response to optogenetic stimulation of their input, has become an indispensable staple to probe the function of neural circuits. The large amounts of distinct metrics that one can obtain this way are both informative but also daunting to the newcomer. In a recent review paper, Frank Meye’s team summarized the methodological state-of-the-art for this approach. The paper featured several team members including co-first authors Laura Supiot and Louisa Linders. In particular, the authors reviewed the rationale behind the different metrics used to study synaptic connectivity and changes in synaptic strength. They compiled a guide for the implementation of these methodologies in practice and discussed future directions to decipher neural circuits.
“We aimed to provide the rationale for distinct electrophysiological synaptic metrics, as well as practically explain how to obtain them.” Laura Supiot
Also see the tweet by Frank Meye. Congratulations to the whole team! 🎉
Leptin targets spatially diverse neurons
Leptin is a hormone that is secreted by fat and signals the need to stop eating and increase energy expenditure via leptin receptors (LepR). Various hunger and reward centers in the brain contain different LepR expressing neurons. The primary leptin center is the well-studied arcuate nucleus. Other hypothalamic nuclei are less abundant in leptin receptor but also essential in encoding leptin’s actions. The composition of these LepR neurons have not been well understood.
In their recently published paper in Science Reports, Nefeli Kakava and colleagues from the UMC Utrecht Brain Center explore the scarce LepR population in the lateral hypothalamus. This population is known for its effects on food intake and food reward, and may be defective in eating disorders. The authors successfully capture the transcriptome of these neurons using TRAP-Seq. Exploration of their molecular profile confirms the expression of diverse neuropeptides and receptors. Microscopy analysis reveal their diverse spatial expression patterns. Moreover, they unravel new markers that could have significant role in energy balance. They also explore what is the transcriptional response of these neurons to energy deficit.
“I am excited that we have successfully managed to capture RNA from this very rare albeit significant population of leptin responsive cells and hope our findings inspire new research”
Nefeli obtained her PhD in 2020 as part of the Adan lab, where she developed viral vector tools to target and manipulate the activity of brain cells involved in food reward and energy balance. In collaboration with the Basak lab, she has profiled the hypothalamic LepR cells using TRAP-Seq and single cell genomics techniques.
