We spend a third of our lives asleep, and without it, we’d die faster than we would without food. Yet we still don’t know exactly why we sleep. We have learned a lot about what goes on during sleep, which is necessary for maintaining healthy brain functioning.
Join us in the city that never sleeps to learn from two researchers who study this elusive yet essential behavior.
Ilan Dinstein, PhD Associate Professor, Ben Gurion University
Dr. Dinstein received his PhD from the Center for Neural Science at New York University and completed postdoctoral training in the Neurobiology Department at the Weizmann Institute and the Psychology Department at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the neurobiology of autism with a particular emphasis on early development. He is the deputy director of the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research, which collects vital information from hundreds of children with autism and their families with the goal of improving autism diagnosis and treatment. The center brings together researchers and clinicians from a variety of universities and medical centers in Israel and manages a national database and biobank for autism research, including data on sleep.
Andrew Varga, MD Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dr. Varga completed an M.D. from New York Medical College, residency training in neurology at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a sleep medicine fellowship at NYU. Dr. Varga has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of learning and memory, the role of sleep in cognition, and the effects of sleep disorders and sleep loss on cognitive function and risk for Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases. His active research programs include investigating sleep disruption and augmentation on tau pathology in animal models, as well as studying aging and sleep apnea effects on spatial memory and changes to the brain using neuroimaging techniques in humans.
