Research Abstract:
The primary goal of my laboratory is to identify and describe molecular pathways that are relevant for our understanding of mammalian sleep and sleep homeostasis and to determine if these pathways impact motivated waking behaviors. Pathways are currently being identified by evaluating convergent data sets derived from traditional approaches (mutant screens and selection experiments) as well as the creative application of cDNA microarrays in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. As candidate genes are identified, the corresponding mutants are studied to determine whether they form additive or epistatic interactions. More importantly, the behavior of mutant flies are evaluated in established learning paradigms to determine if alterations in sleep processes are associated with alterations in waking performance/plasticity. Select candidate genes are subsequently evaluated to determine if they play a role in mammalian sleep using classic experimentation in the rodent.
Selected Publications:
Donlea JM, Ramanan N and Shaw PJ. Use-dependent Plasticity in Clock Neurons Regulates Sleep Need in Drosophila. Science 2009 324: 105-108.
Seugnet L, Suzuki Y, Thimgan M, Donlea JM, Gimbel SI et al. Identifying sleep regulatory genes using a Drosophila model of insomnia. J Neurosci 2009 29: 7148-7157.
Seugnet L, Galvin JE, Suzuki Y, Gottschalk L and Shaw PJ. Persistent short-term memory defects following sleep deprivation in a Drosophila Model of Parkinson’s disease. Sleep 2009 32(8): 984-992.
Seugnet L, SuzukiY, Vine L, Gottschalk L and Shaw PJ. D1 Receptor Activation in the Mushroom Bodies Rescues Sleep-Loss-Induced Learning Impairments in Drosophila. Curr Biol. 2008 Aug 5;18(15):1110-7.
Ganguly-Fitzgerald I, Donlea J, Shaw PJ. Waking experience affects sleep need in Drosophila. Science 2006 313:1775-1781. PMID 16990546.
Last Updated: 09/02/2009 |