UWA Logo What's On at UWA
   UWA HomeProspective Students  | Current Students  | Staff  | Alumni  | Visitors  | About  |     Search UWA    for      
 

SEMINAR: Sleep/wakefulness control using optogenetics

* Login to add events... *
Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
Sleep/wakefulness control using optogenetics : School of Human Sciences Special Seminar by Raine Visiting Professor Other events...
The Speaker Professor Akihiro Yamanaka leads a team of researchers at the Department of Neuroscience II, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (RIEM) at Nagoya University, Japan. Professor Yamanaka is a pharmacologist by training but early in his career he developed a strong interest in neuroscience. He has been at the forefront of research on orexin/hypocretin neurons since their discovery in 1998. Using slice patch clamp recording of orexin neurons, and later using optogenetics to control the activity of orexin neurons and associated neurotransmitter pathways, he has unravelled the nature and functionality of the neural network that is involved in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness.

He has published more than 90 papers since obtaining his PhD in 2000, with more than 40% of his papers in high impact journals such as Nature, Science, and Neuron. He has extensively published about the applications and developments of optogenetics technology in the neurosciences.

Optogenetics enables neuroscientists to manipulate the activity of neurons using light. What is the mechanism of optogenetics? What can a neuroscientist reveal using optogenetics? In this seminar, Professor Yamanaka will discuss the impact of optogenetics on neuroscience research, taking as an example the application to neural circuits that regulate animal behaviour.

Abstract: Sleep/wakefulness is a very familiar and interesting physiological phenomenon. However, little is known about its neural regulatory mechanisms, since it has been difficult to manipulate the activity of neurons in vivo. With the development of optogenetics in 2005, it has become possible to control the activity of targeted neurons in vivo. To do this, light activated proteins, such as channelrhodopsin (ChR), can be expressed in the targeted neurons and the delivery of light at an appropriate wavelength then activates those ChR expressing neurons. In this lecture, Prof Yamanaka will discuss the impact of optogenetics on neuroscience research, taking as an example the application to neural circuits that regulate sleep and wakefulness.
Speaker(s) Professor Akihiro Yamanaka
Location Seminar Room 1.81, School of Human Science, Anatomy Building
Contact Christine Page <[email protected]> : 64887126
Start Mon, 08 Oct 2018 13:00
End Mon, 08 Oct 2018 14:00
Submitted by Christine Page <[email protected]>
Last Updated Tue, 02 Oct 2018 09:07
Included in the following Calendars:
Additional Information:
  • Locations of venues on the Crawley and Nedlands campuses are available via the Campus Maps website.
  • Download this event as: Text | iCalendar
  • Mail this event:

Top of Page
© 2001-2010  The University of Western Australia
Questions? Mail [email protected]