How and Why We Sleep: Insights from a Small Animal Model
- Speaker
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Amita Sehgal, Ph.D.Musser Professor of Neuroscience and HHMI Investigator
Director, Chronobiology and Sleep Institute (CSI)
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
The need to catch some z’s is common throughout the animal kingdom, from blue whales to fruit flies. Yet, despite its prevalence and importance, sleep’s cause and purpose remain largely a mystery.
In this lecture, Amita Sehgal will describe her group’s research investigating the biology of sleep. In particular, she will discuss recent studies of fruit flies that have helped elucidate why sleep persists across so many different species despite continued evolution. In addition, her research using genetic screens has led to the identification of sleep genes, and her analysis of mutants, coupled with hypothesis-driven approaches, has provided clues to sleep’s cellular functions. A cross-disciplinary approach, she says, is critical to unraveling this biological mystery.
About the Speaker
Sehgal is the John Herr Musser Professor of Neuroscience, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Institute (CSI) at the University of Pennsylvania. Sehgal received her Ph.D. from the Weill Graduate School of Cornell University and conducted her postdoctoral work at Rockefeller University. She has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that generate endogenous circadian rhythms and the genetic mechanisms and functions of sleep.