Sleep is an evolutionarily ancient and indispensable behavior exhibited by animals across phyla. Despite its ancient origins and ubiquity, sleep is a biological mystery because we do not know how it is controlled. It is widely accepted that sleep is regulated by two systems---the circadian clock which controls sleep timing and the sleep homeostat that controls sleep amount. However, our understanding of sleep is obscured beyond this because the detailed molecular, cellular, and physiological data that continue to emerge remain insulated due to the lack of a suitable framework. Towards such a comprehensive framework, we are constructing a hidden Markov model (HMM) of sleep-wake transitions from measurements of fruit fly behavior. We are taking advantage of the genetic tractability of fruit flies to refine and interpret our HMM. In this talk, I will give a broad overview of sleep research and discuss our work thus far in using HMM to understand the fundamental principles underlying sleep regulation.
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is an important tissue for thermogenesis, making it a potential target to decrease the risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and recent studies have also identified BAT as an endocrine organ. Although BAT has been implicated to be protective in cardiovascular disease, to this point there are no studies that identify a direct role for BAT to mediate cardiac function. We have now identified a circulating lipokine, 12,13-diHOME, that is released from BAT and can preserve cardiovascular function and have a direct effect on cardiomyocyte contraction. Further investigation has identified a role for this lipid to mediate cardiovascular function in various disease states and made provide a novel therapeutic role for BAT to improve cardiovascular health.
Last update: 2/1/2024, Ralf Bundschuh