Dr. Amita Sehgal

Biography

Amita Sehgal is a prominent researcher in the field of Neuroscience, focusing on the molecular basis of behavior. She is affiliated with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves as the John Herr Musser Professor. Her research laboratory investigates circadian rhythms and their relevance to sleep, genetics, metabolism, and aging. Key accomplishments include the isolation of the timeless clock gene and elucidation of its role in the autoregulatory loop that lies at the core of the endogenous biological clock. Additionally, her ongoing work seeks to understand the neural circuits that drive rest and activity rhythms, and addresses the physiological processes controlled by circadian mechanisms in both Drosophila and mammals. Sehgal collaborates with others to develop models that allow for a deeper understanding of sleep regulation, identifying critical sleep genes and their functions within the broader context of health and aging.

Research Interests