Laboratory of Neuroscience at VA Boston Healthcare System

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Directors: Radhika Basheer, Ph.D., Ritchie E. Brown, Dr. Rer. Nat.

The Laboratory of Neuroscience, at the West Roxbury Division of the VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS), was founded by pioneering sleep researcher, Robert W. McCarley, who passed away in 2017. Its current directors are Radhika Basheer and Ritchie E. Brown, Associate Professors at HMS and Full Preceptors on the T32 Training Program in Sleep, Circadian and Respiratory Neurobiology. These investigators work closely with other funded scientists at the Assistant Professor level: James McNally (Assistant Professor, Associate Preceptor on T32), Dmitry Gerashchenko (Assistant Professor), Mark Zielinski (Assistant Professor) and Fumi Katsuki (Assistant Professor). Funding is provided by grants from the US Veterans Administration, National Institutes of Health, and industry.

The Laboratory of Neuroscience at VABHS is a multidisciplinary, highly collaborative laboratory devoted to the understanding of brain mechanisms controlling sleep and their dysfunction. Techniques include neuroanatomy, whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, molecular biology, in vivo electrophysiology, spectral analysis, optogenetics, chemogenetics, fiber photometry, CRISPR gene editing and behavioral analysis in genetically modified mice. These techniques are used to conduct preclinical basic research focusing on key questions related to sleep and wakefulness:

1) Which brain mechanisms make us sleepy when we stay awake for prolonged periods?

2) What is the role of different brain neurons in waking us up, putting us to sleep and switching between different states of sleep and how can we identify and target them?

3) What cellular and neurobehavioral changes are associated with sleep loss/disruption and how can we overcome them?

4) How do brain arousal and sleep mechanisms go awry in schizophrenia?

5) How do hypnotic drugs act, how can we improve them and how can we use them to treat sleep disorders such as insomnia?

6) Can we manipulate brain oscillations typical of arousal or sleep to improve cognition, counteract sleep deprivation and promote optimal brain health?

7) How does the immune system control sleep?

8) How can we use knowledge of arousal and sleep mechanisms to improve brain function in mouse models of human diseases and in aging?

ACTIVE GRANTS
NIH:
R01 NS119227 Neural correlates of sleep homeostasis (PI: Radhika Basheer)

R01 AG081809 Sleep-dependent mechanisms of improving cerebral blood flow and reducing Alzheimer's disease progression by photobiomodulation with near-infrared light (PI: Dmitry Gerashchenko)

R03 MH137541Spectral Components of Abnormal Spontaneous Gamma Activity in Schizophrenia and Translational Mouse Models (PIs: James M. McNally, Kevin Spencer)        

VA:
VA Merit Review I01 BX001404 The role of electrical synapses in neural dynamics involved in sleep/wake and sensory perception (PI: Radhika Basheer)
VA Merit Review I01 BX004673. Specification of sleep-wake control neurons in the basal forebrain (PI: Ritchie E. Brown)
VA Merit Review I01 RD001372 Cell-type specific evaluation of globus pallidus pars externa as a translational target to improve sleep and arousal (PI: Ritchie E. Brown)
VA Merit Review I01 BX004500 Basal forebrain regulation of default mode and task-on functional network activity: translational modeling of psychiatric disorders (PI: James M. McNally) VA SPIRE grant  I21 RX005145 Gamma frequency oscillations improve pathological and emotional outcomes in a mouse model of repetitive mild TBI (PI: James M. McNally) VA Merit I01 BX005379 Inflammation, Neurovascular Hemodynamics, and Sleep in Traumatic Brain Injury (PI: Mark Zielinski)