BIO

Alissa Kalyan is a second year student at FSU majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience with a minor in chemistry. She is looking forward to continuing her involvement in undergraduate research at Florida State while also working as a Clinical Medical Assistant at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She is on a pre-medical track and would love to pursue a career in medicine.

Effects of Sleep Fragmentation on Alcohol Response in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

It is estimated that 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disturbances and circadian disorders, affecting everyday functioning and increasing the risk of drug abuse, cancers, metabolic disorders, and other diseases. Previous research has found an association between increased incidents of alcohol abuse and individuals who experience regular circadian rhythm or sleep disturbance, such as shift workers. Gaining a deeper understanding of the effect of circadian rhythm disruption on drug tolerance and recovery is a crucial first step in tackling the issue of increased alcohol toxicity and abuse in sleep fragmented populations. In this study, we investigated how sleep fragmentation affected alcohol neurobiology using Drosophila melanogaster as a model. The high degree of molecular conservation across species and the stereotypical alcohol behaviors from drosophila to humans make drosophila an ideal model organism for studying sleep and alcohol response. We studied two different sleep fragmentation paradigms over four days of fragmentation in young adult flies (3-7 days old) to investigate alcohol sedation responses, alcohol toxicity, and the recovery. Preliminary results suggest an association between increased sleep fragmentation and faster sedation responses, as well as increased mortality rates. Studies are ongoing, and the anticipated results will provide a foundation for future studies investigating the molecular pathways through which sleep disturbances affect alcohol responses.

Keywords: sleep fragmentation, alcohol response, drosophila