Ravi Allada
University of Michigan, MI·Neuroscience
Why we sleep is one of science's oldest mysteries. Nearly every animal studied, even jellyfish without a central brain, has a restorative sleep-like state, despite the risks of being unable to eat, mate or defend itself.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
sleep
Drosophila
fruit fly
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Map sleep- and wake-dependent changes in gene activity in the Drosophila brain at single-cell resolution, using single-cell RNA sequencing to find the cells and genes that track sleep need.
- Profile sleep-dependent protein changes in specific fly brain cells using enzymatic proximity labeling, which tags proteins near a chosen target, to reveal how wakefulness taxes the brain.
- Test the function of sleep/wake-dependent neurons and genes with Drosophila genetics, measuring effects on sleep, memory consolidation and lifespan to link genes to neurons to behavior.
More about the research
Poor sleep contributes to Alzheimer's disease and depression, and even to diabetes and obesity. Sleep is controlled by a "homeostat," a system that tracks how long and how hard we have been awake and builds up pressure to sleep. How this system works is unclear. How does being awake tax the brain? How does the homeostat sense that? How does it trigger sleep? How does sleep restore the brain?
Why it matters
Sleep loss contributes to Alzheimer's disease, depression, diabetes and obesity, but the system that sets how much and how well we sleep is poorly understood. Identifying the genes, proteins and neurons of the sleep homeostat could clarify sleep's role in neurological disease. Because these mechanisms are predicted to be conserved across species, the work could eventually inform how sleep problems are understood in people.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Julie Williams
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether NFκB transcription factors drive production of nemuri, a brain-expressed antimicrobial peptide that promotes sleep, during infection and sleep deprivation in Drosophila.
Erin Wamsley
Furman University, SC·Neuroscience
Test whether memories are reactivated and strengthened during seconds-long periods of waking rest, as they are during sleep, using EEG combined with measures of pupil size, reported thoughts and behavior.
Yuan Yuan Kang
University of Houston-Downtown, TX·Neuroscience
Map quantitative trait loci behind the difference in novel-arena exploration between generalist Drosophila simulans and specialist Drosophila sechellia, using a new population of recombinant inbred lines.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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