CHOUHAN LAB
Neurogenetics of behavior

African elephants can frequently pull all-nighters by remaining awake for more than 36 h and can survive for days with as little as 2.1 h of sleep a day. Also, migratory birds, killer whale mothers, and humans experiencing manic episodes demonstrate a similar lack of sleep. Intriguingly, such long periods of wakefulness don’t have a debilitating effect on physiological functions. We are interested in understanding how the basic function of sleep, a highly conserved behavior across evolution, modifies when animals remain awake for extended periods. We utilize the genetically tractable model organism Drosophila melanogaster and employ a combination of genetic, molecular, and imaging techniques to study the adaptive role of sleep in cognitive functions such as learning and memory.