Sleep and nutrition in Drosophila melanogaster
Event Details
- Date:
- Tuesday, 31 March 2015
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- Level 3, Large Seminar Room
- UQ Location:
- Queensland Bioscience Precinct (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/qaafi-science-seminars-2015
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Mrs Luba Hickey
- Phone:
- 62092
- Email:
- l.kakoychenko@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Event Description
- Full Description:
- QAAFI Science Seminar
Presented by A/Professor Bruno van Swinderen
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland
Abstract
Why we sleep remains one of the greatest mysteries in biology. We are using a genetic model, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, to understand the functions of sleep. Recently, we have found that sleep in flies resembles mammalian sleep, in that flies also progress through different sleep stages of varying intensity. We have developed sophisticated genetic, electrophysiological, and behavioural tools to study this in flies. Whereas sleep functions are often centred on cognitive processes, such as learning and memory, it is clear that nutritional state has an enormous influence on sleep need. In this talk I will outline how we study sleep in Drosophila, and how our approach in this reductionist system may inform our understanding of the effect of nutritional state on sleep functions.
About A/Professor Bruno van Swinderen
A/Professor Bruno van Swinderen heads the Drosophila cognitive neuroscience group at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at The University of Queensland (UQ). Bruno received his PhD in population genetics and evolution from Washington University (St Louis, USA), and then worked at the Neurosciences Institute (San Diego, USA), where the overarching goal was to study and understand consciousness. He moved to QBI in 2008, where he set up a lab to study visual selective attention, sleep, and general anaesthesia in the fruit fly model. Bruno has maintained his interest in consciousness, and last July helped organise the 18th international conference for the scientific study of consciousness, at UQ.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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