Sociobiology of sleep
Sociobiology of sleep
I am an evolutionary biologist with a passion for sleep research. My research focuses on unraveling the forces of social interactions driven molecular changes in the sleep architect. As part of my Ph.D research, entitled "Effect of Rapid Eye Movement sleep deprivation", I studied sleep biology from a physiological perspective and got engaged with its sociobiology and evolution in animal lineages. My current line of research revolves around understanding the sleep sociobiology. My current theme of research: how phylogenetically ancient sleep is? What molecular mechanisms regulate sleep, and are they conserved across phyla? Elucidating the molecular and neural basis of behavior is a major goal of neuroscience; the omnipresence of sleep and the far-reaching implications of understanding it better make it a particularly interesting behavior to study. In a famous example of studying a sleep-like behavior in a phylogenetically ancient model organism, Seymour Benzer studied the cycles of Drosophila quiescence. The period gene was found to be a key regulator of these circadian cycles. Recently, two additional pathways were shown to play a role in regulating Drosophila quiescence and sleep behavior in mammals: Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) signaling and cyclic-AMP (cAMP) signaling. Genetic and pharmacological interventions affecting these pathways produced similar phenotypes across phyla. Taken together, these findings imply that sleep may be phylogenetically ancient and that behavioral approaches can be used to identify sleep-like states. I would like to find out whether key regulatory mechanisms of sleep are indeed conserved.