Imperial College London

Giorgio F. Gilestro

Faculty of Natural SciencesDepartment of Life Sciences

Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5443g.gilestro Website

 
 
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Location

 

408Sir Ernst Chain BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Overview

Why Sleep?

Sleep is a mysterious activity. All animals that have been tested so far, from the simplest invertebrates to the highest mammals, have shown to possess – and to require – the fundamental characteristics of sleep, independently of the size or the complexity of their nervous systems. In all animals sleep is a vital necessity, as chronic sleep deprivation leads to a still unexplained death.

Sleep deprivation

In all species, sleep deprivation leads to dramatic consequences. (xkcd.com)

Most animals sleep for a considerable fraction of their life and also the molecular basis of sleep regulation seem to be strongly conserved as most species respond in the same way to many hypnotic drugs or wake-stimulants. This remarkable conservation across evolution suggests that the core function of sleep has to be sought at the basic cell biological level of neuronal function, namely that sleep is an intrinsic requirement of any neuronal network and, possibly, every neuron (or even cell?). Yet, so far, most of the efforts in investigating the function of sleep have been focused on electrophysiological analysis of the sleeping brain in a very descriptive fashion. We know a great deal about the EEG (electroencephalogram) correlates of sleep and wakefulness but this knowledge could not, by itself, shed a deep light on the function of sleep.

My goal is to tackle the problem from a different perspective, using a combination of genetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics.

Genetics.

What are the genes and the anatomical connections that regulate sleep? What happens in a single neuron when asleep? What are the molecular connections between sleep and learning and memory? Over the last century, Drosophila has proved to be the favourite animal model for studying genetics of relatively complex neurobiological problems: for instance many of the molecules involved with learning and memory have been identified in flies; the entire genetics of circadian regulation was discovered and characterized in Drosophila. It is reasonable and safe to predict that flies can contribute  to the unsolved mystery of sleep as much as they did in other puzzling fields.

Current projects involve: the role of two conserved families of genes in regulation of sleep; the functional link between sleep and learning, with particular focus on local learning; the ontogeny of sleep in Drosophila; the epigenetics regulation of sleep.

Novel approaches.

I am also interested in developing new technological approaches to study sleep. I wrote and maintain a software used to monitor and analyze sleep in invertebrates and I am working to extend its capabilities. I am also exploring novel approaches to study and quantify sleep in humans.

Working in the lab.

I am looking for enthusiastic and skilled Biochemistry and Bioengineering undergraduate students willing to carry their MRes rotation research in my lab. A more detailed description of the projects to be offered will follow on this page. For now, if you have any interest please feel free to drop me an email.

Collaborators

Matthew Rogers, London School Of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2011

Dickinson, Robert, Bioengineering, Imperial College London