Research
Genetic, molecular, and neural underpinnings of sleep and sleep deprivation
Appointments
- Associate Professor; Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology
Biography
Dr. Paul studies the genetic, molecular, and neural underpinnings of sleep. His primary interests are comprised of uncovering the mechanisms responsible for the negative effects of sleep deprivation in adults and children. He also probes the origins of gender/sex differences in the ability to recover from sleep loss to develop therapeutic targets for sleep disorders that disproportionately affect females.
His work has shown that sex differences in daily sleep amount are dependent on circulating reproductive hormones while sex differences in the ability to recover from sleep loss are relatively insensitive to them. Dr. Paul’s current research involves applying a forward genetics approach to uncover the core genes responsible for sleep-wake regulation and the impairing effects of sleep loss. Effective treatments for common sleep-wake disorders are elusive.
Dr. Paul conducts a forward genetics approach to facilitate gene identification that takes advantage of natural variation occurring in sleep-replete and sleep-deprived mice. This approach applies the most cutting edge genome mapping, positional cloning, and DNA sequencing techniques to identifying the genetic origins of unique sleep phenotypes in transgenic mouse models. These studies are expected to identify novel sleep regulatory genes and lead to the development of new therapeutic targets and improved treatments for sleep disorders.
Publications
- Paul, K, Denov, M, Al Houssami, L. Social work practice in complex emergencies: A study of Northwest Syria. J Soc Work (Lond). 2025;25 (3):318-337. doi: 10.1177/14680173241283389. PubMed PMID:40291976 PubMed Central PMC12027602.
- Yadav, A, Paul, KK, Soni, M, Dubey, NK, Prasad, R, Tilak, R et al.. Antifungal resistance in dermatophytes: Essential oil-based nanoformulations as new generation therapeutics against dermatophytes. Microb Pathog. 2025;205 :107622. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2025.107622. PubMed PMID:40274135 .
- Bhattacharjee, S, Paul, K, Raman, KV, Tilgam, J, Kumari, P, Baaniya, M et al.. Constitutive expression of CEN-like protein 2, a TFL1 ortholog of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan [L.] Millspaugh) delays flowering in transgenic tobacco plants. Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2025;31 (3):419-433. doi: 10.1007/s12298-025-01572-8. PubMed PMID:40256274 PubMed Central PMC12006589.
- Chang, CY, Hernández-Armengol, R, Paul, K, Lee, JY, Nance, K, Shibata, T et al.. CDDO-Imidazole regulates RBC alloimmunization to the KEL antigen by activating Nrf2. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.04.03.645598. PubMed PMID:40235992 PubMed Central PMC11996576.
- Kwon, D, Paul, KC, O'Sharkey, K, Paik, SA, Yu, Y, Bronstein, JM et al.. Challenges in studying air pollution to neurodegenerative diseases. Environ Res. 2025;278 :121597. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2025.121597. PubMed PMID:40220887 .