A sleep-like state has been described in a range of organisms from simple fresh water hydra which lack a canonical brain, to more complex ones like us humans. Sleep is essential for many things including growth, metabolism and cellular repair, all of which are core biological processes necessary to maintain all life on earth: as such it would be highly contentious to identify a sleepless animal.
Sleep, like any other behaviour, has evolved in a species-specific manner and is largely determined by physiology as well as ecology and environment. So, while all animals do sleep, how and why they do it, may vary.
Broadly, the lab has two core research questions relating to this diversity:
1) Why do animals sleep, and do they all do it for the same reason(s)?
2) What are the molecular and circuit level changes that have given rise to variability in sleep behaviour?
To address these questions we study closely related fruit fly species (Drosophila) which exhibit an impressive variability in sleep duration, depth, homeostasis and timing. Fruit flies, are a common laboratory model organism which, due to their propensity for genetic and neuronal manipulation, are extremely useful for exploring the mechanisms underpinnings behaviour and crucially, how it might have evolved. We have ~ 30 species in the lab and study how sleep duration is related to metabolism and reproductive investment. Using bioinformatics, we explore between-species variance in sleep-related genes and simulate how this might give rise to changes in protein structure and ultimately function. These predictions then inform direction of transgenic experiments.
We also use Xray tomography to study the physiology of Drosophilae subjected to sleep deprivation. This comparative approach is used as a framework to explore the ubiquity of sleeps functions. The premise is simple : if we remove sleep, we can observe the physiological and cognitive consequences and determine whether these are ubiquitous.
Sleep, like any other behaviour, has evolved in a species-specific manner and is largely determined by physiology as well as ecology and environment. So, while all animals do sleep, how and why they do it, may vary.
Broadly, the lab has two core research questions relating to this diversity:
1) Why do animals sleep, and do they all do it for the same reason(s)?
2) What are the molecular and circuit level changes that have given rise to variability in sleep behaviour?
To address these questions we study closely related fruit fly species (Drosophila) which exhibit an impressive variability in sleep duration, depth, homeostasis and timing. Fruit flies, are a common laboratory model organism which, due to their propensity for genetic and neuronal manipulation, are extremely useful for exploring the mechanisms underpinnings behaviour and crucially, how it might have evolved. We have ~ 30 species in the lab and study how sleep duration is related to metabolism and reproductive investment. Using bioinformatics, we explore between-species variance in sleep-related genes and simulate how this might give rise to changes in protein structure and ultimately function. These predictions then inform direction of transgenic experiments.
We also use Xray tomography to study the physiology of Drosophilae subjected to sleep deprivation. This comparative approach is used as a framework to explore the ubiquity of sleeps functions. The premise is simple : if we remove sleep, we can observe the physiological and cognitive consequences and determine whether these are ubiquitous.