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Sleep and Performance Research Seminar Series
June 14, 2019 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Dr. Tarja Stenberg (Porkka-Heiskanen) will present “Microglia reactions to sleep deprivation in different brain areas.”
Dr. Stenberg (Porkka-Heiskanen) gained her MD and PhD degrees at the University of Helsinki. She moved to Northwestern University, Evanston, IL for a postdoctoral fellowship 1990 – 1992 and to Harvard Medical School as associate professor 1995-1997. She is presently a senior researcher at the University Of Helsinki, Finland, leading a sleep research team, Sleep Team Helsinki, as part of the larger research program “Sleepwell” established by the Medical Faculty of University of Helsinki.
Her research has concentrated on the mechanisms of recovery sleep, leading to the finding that adenosine and nitric oxide increase in the basal forebrain during sleep deprivation and induce increase in sleep (recovery sleep). She has also studied the effects of prolonged wakefulness in humans and the connection between sleep and depression using animal models. Her present research includes the role of microglial activation in sleep deprivation-related processes.
Dr. Porkka-Heiskanen has coordinated two European Union funded research consortia, which studied the effects of prolonged wakefulness on health and psychosocial functions. She is the past Secretary of the European Sleep Research Society and past President of the Brain Research Society of Finland. Year 2018 she received the Pisa award for outstanding contribution to advance sleep research.