I am a Canadian-trained neurobiologist with a background in  Psychology, behavioural and cognitive neurosciences. My research addresses biological sex and its influence on neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. My lab, which is the Memory, Sleep, and Hormones (MeSH) lab currently focuses on conditions that are more common in females, and investigates the consequences of endocrinological transitional periods, such as menopause, for brain health. Insomnia is a condition affecting more women than men, and is a risk factor for many conditions that affect more women than men. We take a translational perspective to explore how major hormone changes and their interaction with genes can increase vulnerability for developing insomnia, and also increase adverse conseuqences of untreated insomnia for the aging female brain. We achieve this by conducting complementary reserach in rodents and humans. 

Poor sleep and poor memory are both symptoms of many conditions affecting females, and so are a major component to the work of the MeSH lab. We use touchscreen tasks with high translational value to assess cognitive function in rodents. Sleep is assessed using EEG recordings. We explore sleep and circadian disturbances exploring time of day effects in humans or by modeling sleep disturbances in rodents using acute or chronic sleep restriction. Other techniques including neuroimaging (MRI & microscopy), surgical techniques, hormone quantification, and pharmacological manipulations.