Sleep; neuroimmunology; narcolepsy; molecular biology; animal models; rodent EEG;

My overall scientific interes is to understand how the immune system affects the sleep regulating networks of the brain. I am particularly interested in the cellular immune system and interactions between lymphocytes and nenurons.

I currently study the neurologic sleep disorder narcolepsy, where the hypocretin/orexin producing neurons are lost, due to what is hypothesized to be an autoimmune attack on the neurons. I study the details of this neuron-immune interaction using patient samples, cell culture and animal models.