Dragana Rogulja

Dragana Rogulja, PhD

Associate Professor of Neurobiology

A remarkable change occurs in our brains each night, making us lose the essence of who we are for hours at a time: we fall asleep. A process so familiar to us, sleep nevertheless remains among the most mysterious phenomena in biology. The goal of our work is to understand how the brain reversibly switches between waking and sleep states, and why we need to sleep in the first place. To address these questions, we are using Drosophila melanogaster as our model system, because sleep in the fly is remarkably similar to mammalian sleep. Flies have consolidated periods of activity and sleep; arousal threshold is elevated in sleeping flies; the brain’s electrical activity differs between sleeping and awake flies. As in people, both circadian and homeostatic mechanisms provide input into the regulation of fly sleep: flies are normally active during the day and quiescent at night, but if deprived of sleep will show a consequent increase in “rebound” sleep, regardless of the time of day.

We are currently pursuing three main lines of investigation:

  1. Molecular characterization of novel sleep factors isolated through our large-scale, unbiased genetic screen, with the goal of understanding how the brain falls asleep and wakes up. We are currently focusing on several canonical cell cycle genes that we showed function in post-mitotic neurons to promote sleep.
  2. Functional dissection of discrete neuronal clusters we identified as novel sleep centers in the fly. Some of these clusters consist of only a few neurons, to which we have genetic access for electrical and molecular manipulation.
  3. To get at the question of why animals need to sleep, we are investigating the causes of decreased lifespan in flies that are deprived of sleep.

"The goal of our work is to understand how the brain reversibly switches between waking and sleep states, and why we need to sleep in the first place."

Publications View
Where does mating drive come from?
Authors: Authors: Zhang SX, Glantz EH, Miner LE, Rogulja D, Crickmore MA.
EMBO Rep
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Beyond the Symptom: The Biology of Fatigue.
Authors: Authors: Raizen DM, Mullington J, Anaclet C, Clarke G, Critchley H, Dantzer R, Davis R, Drew KL, Fessel J, Fuller PM, Gibson EM, Harrington M, Lipkin WI, Klerman EB, Klimas N, Komaroff AL, Koroshetz W, Krupp L, Kuppuswamy A, Lasselin J, Lewis LD, Magistretti PJ, Matos HY, Miaskowski C, Miller AH, Nath A, Nedergaard M, Opp MR, Ritchie MD, Rogulja D, Rolls A, Salamone JD, Saper C, Whittemore V, Wylie G, Younger J, Zee PC, Heller HC.
Sleep
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A gut-secreted peptide suppresses arousability from sleep.
Authors: Authors: Titos I, Juginovic A, Vaccaro A, Nambara K, Gorelik P, Mazor O, Rogulja D.
Cell
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A gut-secreted peptide suppresses arousability from sleep.
Authors: Authors: Titos I, Juginovic A, Vaccaro A, Nambara K, Gorelik P, Mazor O, Rogulja D.
Cell
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Hormonal control of motivational circuitry orchestrates the transition to sexuality in Drosophila.
Authors: Authors: Zhang SX, Glantz EH, Miner LE, Rogulja D, Crickmore MA.
Sci Adv
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Daily rewiring of a neural circuit generates a predictive model of environmental light.
Authors: Authors: Song BJ, Sharp SJ, Rogulja D.
Sci Adv
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Sleep Loss Can Cause Death through Accumulation of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Gut.
Authors: Authors: Vaccaro A, Kaplan Dor Y, Nambara K, Pollina EA, Lin C, Greenberg ME, Rogulja D.
Cell
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CaMKII Measures the Passage of Time to Coordinate Behavior and Motivational State.
Authors: Authors: Thornquist SC, Langer K, Zhang SX, Rogulja D, Crickmore MA.
Neuron
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CG14906 (mettl4) mediates m6A methylation of U2 snRNA in Drosophila.
Authors: Authors: Gu L, Wang L, Chen H, Hong J, Shen Z, Dhall A, Lao T, Liu C, Wang Z, Xu Y, Tang HW, Chakraborty D, Chen J, Liu Z, Rogulja D, Perrimon N, Wu H, Shi Y.
Cell Discov
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Recurrent Circuitry Sustains Drosophila Courtship Drive While Priming Itself for Satiety.
Authors: Authors: Zhang SX, Rogulja D, Crickmore MA.
Curr Biol
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