Calcium, smooth muscle, and asthma
by
James Sneyd
University of Auckland

Contraction of airway smooth muscle is not, as far as we know, a good thing; its only known function is to cause asthma. It also happens that contraction of airway smooth muscle appears to be controlled by the frequency of oscillation of the intracellular free calcium concentration. Thus, this cell type provides an elegant bridge between the study of nonlinear dynamical systems, and the study of disease. In my talk I'll describe some experimental results, a mathematical model of those results, the questions that model has raised, and the questions we hope the model will answer.

Date received: November 11, 2008