Professor Aneta Stefanovska

Professor

Research Interests

My work is motivated by the question “What are the physical principles underlying living systems?”. Living systems are characterised by their ability to respond to fluctuations coming from the external and internal environments. They exchange energy and matter with their environments and often do so in a regular way. Hence they have mechanisms to stabilise the frequency and amplitude of the associated oscillations, and can be characterised as interacting self-sustained non-autonomous oscillators.

We have named this class of systems chronotaxic (from chronos – time and taxis – order) and we are now defining their properties. We also work on the development of the numerical methods needed for studying the dynamics of chronotaxic systems as an inverse problem. Analysing recorded data, we observe similar patterns at all levels of complexity: starting from cells up to the cardiovascular system and the brain, to ecosystems and climate. Similar properties were observed also in laboratory experiments on surface state electrons on liquid helium.

In my work I learn from nature, but I also try to be useful to nature. Recording time-series, and analysing the underlying dynamics with our new algorithms, we investigate how we age in a dynamical sense, or what happens when we are unconsciousness in anaesthesia, or what changes take place in various cardiovascular diseases. Recently, we started investigating the dynamical markers of cancer.

Network dynamics-based standards for endothelial health
16/10/2023 → 15/10/2024
Research

Creation and evolution of quantum turbulence in novel geometries
01/09/2022 → 31/08/2026
Research

DSI:Quantitative Assessment of Autistic Spectrum Disorder
01/10/2021 → 31/03/2025
Research

Alzheimer's Research Project - Years 11,12 & 13
01/10/2019 → 30/09/2022
Research

Workshop on non-autonomous oscillatory systems and their applications in the life sciences
01/06/2018 → 30/11/2019
Research

Conduction and selectivity between monovalent ions within the potassium channel
01/11/2017 → 30/10/2021
Research

A device to detect and measure the progression of dementia by quantifying the interactions between neuronal and cardiovascular oscillations
01/05/2015 → 31/10/2018
Research

Ionic Coulomb blockade oscillations and the physical origins of permeation, selectivity, and their mutation transformations in biological ion channels
01/04/2015 → 30/09/2018
Research

H2020: COSMOS
01/01/2015 → 31/08/2019
Research

Physics of non-autonomous systems in the life sciences
01/05/2011 → 31/03/2015
Research

Interdiciplinary workshop on fluctuations and coherence: from superfluids to living systems
01/04/2011 → 31/03/2012
Research

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust funded (Leese bequest) studentship - Modelling the role of the endothelium in cardiovascular physiology £61,000
01/09/2010 → 31/08/2013
Research

Dynamics of cardiovascular ageing
01/10/2009 → 31/03/2012
Research

FEC code for PYA7886: Dynamics of cardiovascular ageing
01/10/2009 → …
Research

FP6 BRACCIA; Brain, respiration and cardiac causalities in anaesthesia
01/01/2005 → 01/09/2009
Other

  • DSI - Health
  • Nonlinear and Biomedical Physics