Message from Chancellor Fox: One of UCSD’s greatest institutional strengths is the breadth and depth of faculty research on a range of important topics. Each month, Chancellor’s Corner will showcase cross-disciplinary faculty expertise in a specific area. I invite you to learn more about the work of these scholars, and I hope you share my pride in their achievements and their contributions to society.

SLEEP

Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Professor of Psychiatry,
Co-Director of the Laboratory for Sleep and Chronobiology
Dr. Ancoli-Israel’s research interests include the longitudinal effect of sleep disorders on aging, the effect of circadian rhythms on sleep, the use of light therapy to improve sleep and behavior in nursing home populations and fatigue in cancer. She currently has two NIH grants. The first, funded by the National Institute on Aging, examines the effect of treating sleep apnea on cognitive functioning in patients with mild-moderate dementia. The second grant, funded by National Cancer Institute, examines the relationship between the complaint of fatigue and sleep and circadian rhythms in women with breast cancer. More…

Camellia Pratt Clark, Assistant Adjunct Professor
Her major interests have been in imaging (SPECT, structural and functional MRI) and sleep research. She is currently using locally developed perfusion MRI to examine the antidepressant effects of one night of partial sleep deprivation. (Her previous study used SPECT.) Most of her sleep research has focused on major depression, at times including co-morbid alcoholism and anxiety. She helped develop projects involving the effects of acute tryptophan depletion effects on mood and sleep and the effects of transdermal nicotine on mood, sleep and smoking in depressed smokers. I have also collaborated on immune function studies of depression and primary insomnia. More…

Joel E. Dimsdale, Professor of Psychiatry
Dimsdale is Professor of Psychiatry and co-leader of the Cancer Symptom Control Research Program at UCSD’s Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center. His clinical subspecialty is consultation psychiatry. Dr. Dimsdale’s major research interests include sympathetic nervous system physiology as it relates to stress, blood pressure, and sleep; cultural factors in illness; and quality of life. He is the author of over 500 publications as well as the editor of 4 books. More…

Sean P. Drummond, Assistant Professor
Dr. Drummond’s research focuses largely on the effects of sleep loss on brain function. “Sleep loss” is typically imposed experimentally, although he also has an interest in both natural and pathological sleep loss (e.g., from sleep or psychiatric) disorders, as well as differences in habitual sleep need. “Brain function” in their studies is measured through both cognitive performance and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In addition to the effects of sleep loss, he is also interested in sleepiness countermeasures (including sleep itself!). Finally, she also has an interest in the interaction between sleep and substances of abuse. More…

Steve Kay, Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Almost all cellular processes fluctuate with a 24-hour periodicity, and these fluctuations are known as circadian rhythms. The circadian biological clock controls diverse events, from the sleep-wake cycle in humans to the overall rate of photosynthesis in plants. Many human pathologies, such as sleep disorders, are likely to result from a circadian defect, so understanding how cells generate these 24-hour rhythms will have significance for both plants and animals. The recent discovery of homologs to clock proteins between diverse species suggests that the elucidation of clock mechanisms in model systems will have broad impact for studies in humans. Our research team has chosen to study how circadian clocks are built inside of cells using molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches in three model systems: mouse, Arabidopsis, and Drosophila. More…

Daniel F. Kripke, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus
Current studies focus on bright light treatment of depression, the clinical efficacy and the underlying mechanisms. They are also interested in the circadian phase-response to bright light and exercise stimuli and the consequences for melatonin regulation. Light’s roll in photoperiodic regulation in humans is a long-term theme. Preliminary studies are examining how genetic variations in circadian clocks may influence clinical pathology. More…

Jose S. Loredo,
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Dr. Loredo is active in clinical research. Currently he is investigating the role of peripheral chemoreceptors in the development of hypertension in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). He is also interested in the role of arousals from sleep in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) of patients with OSA. The projects hypothesis is that high tonic chemoreceptor activity contributes to the development or maintenance of hypertension and high SNS tone in OSA patients. Other research interests include the effects of treatment of OSA in the control of asthma and the epidemiology of sleep disorders in the US Hispanic population. More…

Sara Mednick, Professor of Psychiatry
Dr. Mednick’s research is devoted not only to understanding how napping can improve human performance but also, through the use of such cutting-edge technology as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), to actually pinpoint the areas of the brain that underlie these improvements. More…

Barbara L. Parry, Professor of Psychiatry
The chronobiological basis of mood disorders specific to women: premenstrual, pregnancy/postpartum and menopausal depression as well as light treatment of child and adolescent depression. Investigate the relationship of sleep, light, melatonin and other hormones with mood disorders and conduct experimental interventions with sleep, light and hormonal therapies. More…

** To learn more about other campus faculty scholars and areas of expertise, please visit the searchable UCSD Faculty Experts Database at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/