Dr. Chiara Cirelli

Biography

Chiara Cirelli received her medical degree and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pisa, Italy. She began her investigation into the molecular correlates of sleep and wakefulness, focusing on the role of the noradrenergic system in sleep regulation. Cirelli continued her work at the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego, California, as a fellow in experimental neuroscience. Since 2001, she has been a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research aims to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of sleep regulation using a combination of molecular genetic approaches. Cirelli’s laboratory conducts whole-genome expression profiling studies in various species, characterizing hundreds of genes and their expression changes in neurons and glial cells concerning sleep and wakefulness. Through her analysis, she has identified specific cellular processes that favor sleep and are impaired during sleep deprivation. In addition, her laboratory performs large-scale mutagenesis screening for sleep phenotypes in Drosophila, identifying mutant fly lines with reduced sleep and resistance to sleep deprivation. Her molecular genetic studies demonstrate that sleep is closely related to experience-dependent plasticity during wakefulness, proposing that while wakefulness is associated with net synaptic potentiation, sleep favors global synaptic renormalization, thus preserving the overall balance of synaptic strength. Current experiments involve using transgenic flies and mice with advanced microscopy techniques to confirm the essential function of sleep in promoting homeostatic reductions in synaptic strength and to explore the long-term consequences of lack of sleep, particularly during adolescence, on the functional and anatomical connectivity of the brain.

Research Interests