The Enteric Nervous System, which is the largest subdivision of the peripheral nervous system, regulates key gastrointestinal and systemic functions of digestion, metabolism, immunity, and maintenance of intestinal microbiota. Using various lineage...
Our translational research focuses on applying electrophysiological measures, imaging modalities, and innovative bioengineering approaches to diagnose and treat neuromuscular disorders. These techniques include electrical impedance myography...
Our research focuses on understanding the neural circuitry that controls arousal and sleep, and how the function of this circuitry is disrupted in narcolepsy and other sleep disorders.
A major line of investigation is to determine how this circuitry is...
The focus of the Saper laboratory is on the integrated functions maintained by the hypothalamus, including regulation of wake-sleep cycles, body temperature, and feeding and their interactions with external stressors, ranging from immune stimuli, to food...
What is hunger, and how does it guide behavior?
To answer this, and other related questions, at the level of both neurobiological mechanisms and psychological constructs, we are utilizing neuron-specific recombinase driver mice in conjunction with...
The goal of my lab is to understand the role of corticolimbic areas in guiding attention to, and imagery, learning and memory of, motivationally-salient external and interoceptive stimuli. To understand these neural phenomena at the level of local...