Research
Research Focus
The Saper Lab studies the brain circuitry that controls basic life functions such as wake-sleep, circadian rhythms, thermoregulation, and responses to stress. We also explore the ways in which these circuits are damaged in aging and neurodegenerative disorders.
Wake-Sleep Circuitry
We study study brain circuitry that controls sleep and wakefulness, as well as controlling breathing during sleep.
Circadian Rhythms
We study the circuitry that allows the brain's circadian clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, to impose the day-night rhythm on physiology and behavior
Thermoregulation
We study the brain circuitry that controls body temperature, including the mechanisms of fever during inflammation and of torpor, a steep fall in body temperature and metabolism to conserve energy during times of inadequate food availability
Translational Research
Human Brain Circuits and Their Fate in Neurodegenerative Disorders
Many of the same brain circuits we study in mice can be studied in human brains using immunohistochemistry. We explore their fate in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Suprachiasmatic nucleus in the human brain stained immunohistchemically for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The amplitude of circadian rhythms in older people is proportional to the number of surviving VIP neurons in the SCN (Wang et al., Ann Neurol 215;78:317). The human SCN controls all aspects of circadian physiology and behavior, but is only 0.5 mm across in a human brain. Scale = 1.0 mm on left, 0.1 mm on right.
Building Future Leaders in Research
A major focus of our lab is on training young people for careers as independent investigators. We usually have 5-7 investigators in our lab, at different levels from undergraduates and graduate students to postdoctoral fellows, each of whom has their own project which can be the base for their future career. Lab members learn to give talks on the progress of their work at weekly lab meetings and are trained to write manuscripts and grant proposals. Of 12 graduate students and 45 postdoctoral fellows, 16 have so far become Full Professors, 11 Associate Professors, and 10 Assistant Professors. Our lab is diverse, with approximately equal numbers of women and men, and trainees of every group, including from many countries in Europe, Asia, South and Central America, and Australia.