ABQ Times

Mubarak Hussain Syed, an assistant professor of Biology at The University of New Mexico, is leading a research team to investigate the developmental and genetic factors influencing sleep behavior. Collaborating with students from UNM and partners at the University of Pennsylvania, Syed's lab uses Drosophila, commonly known as fruit flies, as a model for their studies.

The team's research was recently published in Current Biology under the title "Stem cell-specific ecdysone signaling regulates the development of dorsal fan-shaped body neurons and sleep homeostasis." The study examines how these factors regulate neuron formation and behavior, focusing on sleep.

Syed received the 2024 McKnight Scholar Award, recognizing young scientists committed to neuroscience. Key contributors to this project include Adil Wani, a graduate student who led much of the experimental work. Syed acknowledged Wani's efforts along with those of undergraduate assistants Gonzalo Morales Chaya and Krishna Patel. He also expressed gratitude to collaborators Dr. Budhaditya Chowdhury from The City University of New York and Drs. Jenny Luoung and Matthew Kayser from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Drosophila is an excellent genetic model system for understanding neural circuits," Syed stated. "Our goal is to understand how different neuron types are generated during development and how these neuron types acquire their function."

The research identified neural stem cells that produce sleep-regulating neurons in Drosophila. According to Syed, "We show that late neural stem cells in the maggot brain, with the help of a steroid hormone, ecdysone, regulate the formation of these sleep neurons."

This work has implications for understanding neurodevelopmental disorders associated with sleep deficits. "Understanding how the brain is built and assembled during development is essential for understanding how the brain functions," Syed explained.

The study received support from organizations including the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, Sloan Foundation, and McKnight Foundation.