Masashi Tabuchi, assistant professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University, was awarded a prestigious Scialog grant alongside his research collaborators for their innovative work in sleep and cognition research. Members of the the team, including Farzaneh Najafi of Georgia Tech and Longzhi Tan of Stanford University, will each receive $55,000 (direct cost $50,000 plus indirect cost $5,000) to pursue their project: “Rewiring Genome in 3D to Enhance Cognition after Sleep Deprivation across Species.”
The research aims to uncover the fundamental relationship between sleep, three-dimensional genome organization, and cognitive function. Sleep is known to play a vital role in regulating chromatin dynamics and gene expression, which directly influence learning and memory. By studying these processes across different species, the team seeks to identify universal principles of how sleep affects brain function at the molecular level.
The project brings together three complementary areas of expertise: Najafi’s work in cerebellar physiology and mouse behavior, Tan’s pioneering research in single-cell 3D genome structure analysis, and Tabuchi’s extensive background in sleep physiology and neural coding. This interdisciplinary collaboration will employ cutting-edge chemical and genetic tools to manipulate 3D genome structure, allowing the team to simulate the molecular effects of sleep and sleep deprivation while studying their impact on cognitive abilities.
Scialog: Molecular Basis of Cognition is an initiative designed to catalyze breakthrough research in understanding the brain’s functional architecture, neuronal signaling pathways and neuroplasticity regulation. These advances could lead to improved treatments for brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, and enhanced learning methodologies. Tabuchi, who has been a Scialog Fellow since 2022, becomes the second CWRU recipient of this prestigious award, following physics’ Lydia Kisley’s selection in an earlier cohort.