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Research Highlight:
Dr. Ashley Ingiosi
Washington State University
Astrocytes Play a Starring Role in Sleep Regulation
This research highlight features Dr. Ashley Ingiosi, current post-doctoral fellow at Washington State University and incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at The Ohio State University in Fall 2022. Dr. Ingiosi discusses her findings regarding the role of astrocytes—a type of glial cell in the brain—in sleep regulation and homeostasis. She explains why both the multiphoton microscope and the miniscope are critical for her research.
“Everybody has some sort of a personal relationship with sleep, so people understand it to a degree. But once you start studying it, you realize how complex it actually is. Sleep is way more complicated than a lot of us give it credit for and way more important than a lot of us give it credit for.”
ABOUT THE RESEARCHER:
Ashley Ingiosi, Ph.D., is a BRAIN Initiative K99/R00 investigator and Ruth L. Kirschstein postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Marcos Frank, Ph.D., at Washington State University in Spokane.
FIELD OF STUDY:
Dr. Ingiosi’s research focuses on the role of astrocytes in sleep and sleep homeostasis, providing the first in vivo evidence showing that astroglial calcium signals change dynamically with sleep, wake, and sleep loss.
