My project encompasses two parts. Both take advantage of prior work in the Frank lab characterizing a form of synaptic plasticity, termed “synaptic homeostasis”, using the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) as a model. When muscle neurotransmitter receptors are impaired, the neuron compensates for the impairment by releasing more neurotransmitter. The Frank lab and others have found that many factors are important for this process, including “induction factors” that work on a short timescale (minutes) and “maintenance factors” that work throughout life. For one part of my project, I am determining the timing of the function of synaptic homeostasis maintenance factors. Loss of a maintenance factor can be tolerated if the NMJ is challenged with an acute impairment of neurotransmitter receptors, but synaptic homeostasis breaks down with long-term challenges. I am testing these factors using electrophysiology to determine the timing of homeostatic breakdown for each of the factors. For the second part of my project, I am following up on work from a prior student, Dr. Noah Armstrong, to test if disruptions to synaptic homeostasis maintenance factors cause disruption to sleep patterns. The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY) in the sleep field posits that sleep is used as an off-line period to restore the brain’s capacity for plasticity that is needed during wakefulness. This idea has not been rigorously tested at a molecular level. If the general concept of SHY is correct, perturbations that disrupt sleep would affect synaptic homeostasis and disruptions to synaptic homeostasis would also affect sleep. Dr. Armstrong’s work in the lab has showed that disruptions in a subset of canonical sleep genes can also cause disruptions to synaptic homeostasis. In the past year, I have established a working protocol to perform sleep experiments on mutations in the synaptic homeostasis maintenance factors. Using this protocol I have started to test the synaptic homeostasis maintenance factors for sleep phenotypes.

Honors and Awards

Genetics T-32 Pre-doctoral Training Grant (2023-2024)