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Biography
I am interested in developing and using new tools to rescue abnormal behavior in neurodegenerative diseases. My initial research focused on learning and memory. Since 2006 my research has focused on narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that is characterized by neurodegeneration of neurons containing the peptide orexin. We have pioneered the application of orexin gene transfer and published the first evidence that transferring the gene for orexin rescues narcoleptic symptoms in narcoleptic mice. In subsequent papers I demonstrated that for the behavior to be rescued the gene needed to be transferred to only a few neurons in a specific circuit. I am currently funded by NIH R01 and R21, to further dissect narcolepsy brain circuitry with cutting-edge technologies such as optogenetics, DREDD and deep brain imaging.