Circadian Regulation of Sleep and Metabolism
Neural mechanisms by which clocks receive and integrate external stimuli, and in turn control behavior and physiology remain poorly understood. My recent work demonstrated how the Drosophila circadian clock neurons constantly monitor environmental temperature to set sleep timing. This work challenges the long-standing view in the field that the clock is insensitive to small transient changes in temperature and has important implications for sleep control in all animals, including humans. I will describe an ultra-sensitive calorimeter developed by us for precisely quantifying the metabolic activity of individual Drosophila, in order to investigate metabolic disorders associated with circadian disruption and aging. Finally, I will describe how these tools can be employed to obtain important new insights into mechanisms underlying circadian control of metabolism and sleep.
Swathi Yadlapalli obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan for work on asymmetric stem cell division. She was a recipient of the Harold Weintraub Graduate Student Award. Currently, she is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation at the University of Michigan, where she studies the neural basis of sleep and metabolism.