Amita Sehgal
Professor and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Genetics and Gene Regulation Program

Address

University of Pennsylvania Medical School
232 Stemmler Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Office tel.: 215 573-2985
Lab tel.: 215 898-1177
Fax: 215 746-0232
E-mail: amita@mail.med.upenn.edu

Education

Delhi University, New Delhi, India, BSc (Biology and Chemistry) 1980

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, MSc (Life Sciences) 1982

Cornell University Medical College, PhD (Cell Biology and Genetics) 1988

Research Interests

• Molecular basis of behavior

Key words: circadian rhythms, clock genes, light, photoreceptors, sleep.

Description of Research

The laboratory is interested in the molecular basis of behavior. The major emphasis, to date, has been on the mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms of rest:activity, using Drosophila as a model system. Our accomplishments in this area include the isolation of the timeless clock gene, the finding that timeless (tim) functions in an autoregulatory loop that lies at the core of the endogenous clock, elucidating the mechanisms that synchronize the clock to light and discovering mechanisms that transmit signals from the clock and produce overt rest:activity rhythms. In addition, we have investigated the role of clocks in peripheral (non-brain) tissues in Drosophila as well as mammals. We recently also initiated studies of other behaviors, such as sleep. We and our collaborators established Drosophila as a model system for sleep research. This genetic model for sleep allows us to address longstanding questions about sleep regulation and function that were previously difficult to tackle. Ongoing work in the laboratory is directed towards understanding the control of physiology and behavior by the clock, the genetic and molecular basis of sleep and, finally, the relationship of the circadian and sleep systems to other aspects of physiology.

Selected Publications

Yuan, Q., Lin, F., Zheng, X. and Sehgal, A. "Serotonin modulates circadian entrainment in Drosophila". Neuron 47, 115-127 (2005).

Joiner, W.J., Crocker, A., White, B.H. and Sehgal, A. "Sleep in Drosophila is regulated by adult mushroom bodies", Nature 441, 757-760 (2006).

Koh, K., Zheng, X. and Sehgal, A. "JET-LAG promotes light-induced degradation of the clock protein, timeless", Science 312, 1809-1812 (2006).

Sathyanarayanan, S., Zheng, X., Chen, D., Hay, B. and Sehgal, A.
Identification of novel genes involved in the circadian response to light through a genome-wide RNAi screen, Genes & Dev 22(11), 1522-1533 (2008).

Wu, Y., Bolduc, F.V. Bell, K.,Tully, T.,Fang, Y., Sehgal, A. and Fischer, J.A. A Drosophila Model for Angelman Syndrome, Proc. Natl., Acad. Sci. USA (2008).

Search PubMed for more articles

Lab

Rotation Projects

1. Characterize genes isolated through an RNAi screen for components of the circadian light transduction pathway
2. Screen for new sleep mutants
3. Investigate the role of phosphatases in driving the cycling of circadian proteins

Lab personnel:

8 postdoctoral fellows
1 Research Assistant Professor
1 Research Associate/Senior Research Investigator
4 graduate students
1 lab manager
4 technicians
1 lab assistant
1 administrative assistant