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		Search Text: Home/< Back ToThe Science/Systems Genetics
  Systems Genetics
    In the Laboratory of Systems Genetics, led by Dr. Susan T. Harbison, research is currently focused on her interest in complex traits---and the use of genomic technologies to study them.
    On This Page
    
          Susan Harbison
  Susan Harbison, Ph.D.
          Senior Investigator
          Email
      Meet the Team
            Contact us
  Senior Investigator Research Interests
            
  Research Interests
              Sleep is an enduring biological puzzle in that it appears to lack an adaptive advantage; a sleeping animal cannot forage for food, mate, or defend itself against predation. Yet, as every long-distance traveler, insomniac, or parent of a colicky infant knows, sleep deprivation leads to ill effects on health and cognition. Sleep is an example of a complex trait, influenced by many genes. Sleep is also subject to multiple environmental factors, making it virtually impossible to assess the effect of a single gene in all potential environmental conditions and genetic backgrounds in human populations. Dr. Harbison is currently focusing her interest in complex traits—and the use of genomic technologies to study them—on this challenging problem.Sleep has been observed in nearly every animal species studied, including Drosophila, the common fruit fly. Taking advantage of the powerful genetic tools that have been developed to study Drosophila as a model organism, Dr. Harbison investigates the genetic networks underlying sleep and their interactions with the environment. Research in her laboratory associates sleep characteristics in natural populations with molecular data across populations, environments, and species. Her aim is to look beyond single genes to identify gene networks that will illuminate the function of sleep as well as the degree of conservation across species.Heritable differences in sleep patterns can be observed among individual flies of the same Drosophila species. Differences in sleep may be the result of DNA polymorphisms, or they may be the result of variation in transcript, protein, or metabolite levels. Dr. Harbison is investigating the manner in which these measures lead to differences in sleep for individual flies with different genotypes using natural populations of Drosophila—including the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel—under controlled environmental conditions.Dr. Harbison is also studying how changes in the environment alter sleep. Exposure to drugs, dietary changes, varying temperatures, and social isolation are all examples of environmental changes that can alter sleep patterns in flies and humans. By systematically exposing Drosophila to these changes and measuring the impact on sleep, Dr. Harbison can distinguish gene networks that are robust across environments from those that are plastic.If sleep has a common purpose, then the genes and gene networks affecting sleep are likely to be conserved. For example, a recent collaboration with colleagues at the University of Alabama-Birmingham has produced evidence that an individual gene (dSdc) uncovered by Dr. Harbison in a Drosophila sleep study has a human homologue (SDC4) associated with sleep and resting metabolic rate in children. Dr. Harbison is investigating the degree to which entire gene networks are conserved across species by assessing sleep in two closely related Drosophila species. She is also using in silico mining to identify human homologues of Drosophila candidate genes for sleep. Highly conserved gene networks are of practical importance for human sleep biology as well as potential therapeutic targets for sleep disorders.
  Images






          Sleep duration over generations
      
        Click the image to expand
    Sleep duration over generations


        
            Sleep duration is heritable. Breeding flies for long and short sleep resulted in extremely long (11.3 hrs.) and short (54.8 min.) night sleep, demonstrating heritability.


                      Genotype variability
      
        Click the image to expand
    Genotype variability


        
            Some genotypes have more day-to-day variability in their sleep than others. Flies of Line 1 have extreme variability, while flies of Line 2 are very stable.


                      Memory defects in relation to sleep time
      
        Click the image to expand
    Memory defects in relation to sleep time


        
            Long and short sleeping flies have short-term memory defects compared to moderate-sleeping control.
      Sleep duration over generations


                      
Genotype variability


                      
Memory defects in relation to sleep time
Featured Publications
                Natural selection on sleep duration in Drosophila melanogaster.
            Authors:Souto-Maior C, Serrano Negron YL, Harbison ST.
                                                                                                                        
            Sci Rep.
      
                2020 Nov 25;10(1):20652
        Read Publication
                      The Sleep Inbred Panel, a Collection of Inbred Drosophila melanogaster with Extreme Long and Short Sleep Duration.
            Authors:Serrano Negron YL, Hansen NF, Harbison ST.
                                                                                                                        
            G3 (Bethesda)
      
                2018 Aug 30;8(9):2865-2873
        Read Publication
                      What have we learned about sleep from selective breeding strategies?
            Authors:Susan T. Harbison
                                                                                                                        
            Sleep
      
                2022 Nov 09;45(11):zsac147
        Read Publication
                      Identification of Genes Contributing to a Long Circadian Period in Drosophila Melanogaster.
            Authors:Shailesh Kumar, Ilker Tunc, Terry R. Tansey, Mehdi Pirooznia, Susan T. Harbison.
                                                                                                                        
            2021 Jun 01;36(3):239-253
        Read Publication
                                View More Publications
  Meet the Team

    Susan Harbison

            Susan Harbison, Ph.D.
                Senior Investigator
                Susan Harbison graduated cum laude with a B.S. in aerospace engineering from North Carolina State University and served as an aerospace engineer for the Naval Aviation Depot for eight years before completing a Ph.D. in genetics, also at North Carolina State, in 2003. She was a postdoctoral researcher with Amita Sehgal at the University of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2007 and with Trudy Mackay at North Carolina State University from 2007 to 2011. In 2012, Dr. Harbison joined the NHLBI as an Earl Stadtman tenure-track Investigator. Dr. Harbison was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2012, and became a Kavli Fellow in 2014. Dr. Harbison is a member of the Genetics Society of America and the Sleep Research Society.
    
          Contact the lab
    10 Center DrBethesda, MD 20814United States
        Phone:
                    301-435-8787
                Fax:
            301-496-9985
  headshot of Yazmin Serrano Negron
    
            Yazmin Serrano Negron, M.S.
        

    Scientific Support Staff

        yazmin.serranonegron@nih.gov
            tansey
    
            Terry  Tansey, Ph.D.
        

    Scientific Support Staff

        ttansey@mail.nih.gov
            yimam
    
            Shemsiya  Yimam
        

    Scientific Support Staff

        yimamss@mail.nih.gov
            Narendra Singh
    
            Narendra Singh, Ph.D.
        

    Staff Scientist

        narendra.singh@nih.gov
            Arijit Ghosh
    
            Arijit  Ghosh, Ph.D.
        

    Postdoctoral Fellow

        arijit.ghosh2@nih.gov
            Shonda Campbell
    
            Shonda Campbell
        

    Graduate Partnership Program Pre-doctoral Fellow

        shonda.campbell@nih.gov
            Brendon Davis
    
            Brendon Davis
        

    Postbaccalaureate Fellow

        brendon.davis@nih.gov
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  scientist in Dr. Harbison's lab
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