Biography

Dr. Shafer is a Professor of Biology and a Linda and Jack Gill Chair at the Gill Institute for Neuroscience. He began working on the Drosophila clock neuron network in 1999 as a graduate student working with Dr. James Truman, Dr. Michael Rosbash, and Dr. Jeff Hall. His first interests were centered on the operation of the molecular circadian clock within the neurons responsible for driving sleep/activity rhythms. He then became interested in the anatomical organization of the fly clock neuron network and made significant contributions to this area of study during his time as a post-doc working with Dr. Paul Taghert and in collaboration with Dr. Charlotte Helfrich-Förster, work that led to the recognition of new subclasses of clock neurons in the fly brain.

Upon learning of the development of genetically encoded sensors for neural activity and intracellular signaling, he began to shift his focus from the anatomical basis of circadian timekeeping to the physiological mechanisms underlying clock neuron network function, which became the focus of his own research program. His lab developed a method of network interrogation that has allowed them to address the nature of connectivity between clock neuron classes. This approach, coupled with the anatomical, genetic, and behavioral methods used in his lab, continues to provide unique insights into clock neuron network function and the circadian control of sleep that are highly relevant to our understanding of circadian timekeeping and sleep in the mammalian brain. 

Publications

  • Abhilash, L. and Shafer, O.T., (2022) A two-process model of Drosophila sleep reveals an inter-dependence between circadian clock speed and the rate of sleep pressure decay. bioRxiv 2022.08.12.503775; DOI: 10.1101/2022.08.12.503775
  • Chowdhury, B., Abhilash L., Ortega, A. Liu, S., and Shafer, O.T., (2022) Homeostatic Control of Deep sleep in Drosophila: Implications for Discovering Correlates of Sleep Pressure. bioRxiv 2022.09.30.510368; DOI: 10.1101/2022.09.30.510368
  • Abhilash, L., and Shafer, O.T., (2023) Parametric effects of light acting via multiple photoreceptor types contribute significantly to circadian entrainment in Drosophila melanogaster. Proc. R. Soc. B. 290: 20230149 [PMID: 37700655]
  • Emery, P., Klarsfeld, A., Stanewsky, R., and Shafer O.T. (2023) Sensitive Timing: A Reappraisal of Chronobiology's Foundational Texts. J. Biol. Rhythm. 38: 245-258 [PMID: 37226809]
  • Shafer, O.T., Gutierrez G.J., Li, K., Mildenhall, A., Spira, D., Marty, J., Lazar, A.A., and Fernandez M.P., (2022) Connectomic Analysis of the Drosophila Lateral Neuron Clock Cells Reveals the Synaptic Basis of Functional Pacemaker Classes. eLife 11:e79139  [PMID: 35766361]
  • Persons, J.L., Abhilash, L., Lopatkin, A.J., Roelofs, A., Bell, E.V., Fernandez, M.P., and Shafer O.T. (2022) PHASE: An Open-Source Program for the Analysis of Drosophila Phase, Activity and Sleep Under Entrainment. J. Biol. Rhythm. 37: 455-467 [PMID: 35727044]
  • B Kostadinov, HL Pettibone, EV Bell, X Zhou, A Pranevicius, OT Shafer and Fernandez, MP (2021). Open-source computational framework for studying Drosophila behavioral phase. STAR protocols 2 (1), 100285
  • OT Shafer, AC Keene (2021). The Regulation of Drosophila Sleep. Current Biology 31 (1), R38-R49
  • Florencia Fernandez-Chiappe, Christiane Hermann-Luibl, Alina Peteranderl, Nils Reinhard, Pingkalai R Senthilan, Marie Hieke, Mareike Selcho, Taishi Yoshii, Orie T Shafer, Nara I Muraro, Charlotte Helfrich-Förster (2020) . Dopamine Signaling in Wake-Promoting Clock Neurons Is Not Required for the Normal Regulation of Sleep in Drosophila. Journal of Neuroscience 40 (50), 9617-9633
  • B Chowdhury, OT Shafer (2020). Why the young sleep longer. Elife 9, e56833
  • Anthony Fiorino, Dakotah Thompson, Swathi Yadlapalli, Chang Jiang, Orie T Shafer, Pramod Reddy, Edgar Meyhofer. Parallelized, real-time, metabolic-rate measurements from individual Drosophila. Scientific reports 8 (1), 1-10
  • IU Hsu, JW Linsley, JE Varineau, OT Shafer, JY Kuwada (2018). Dstac is required for normal circadian activity rhythms in Drosophila. Chronobiology international 35 (7), 1016-1026
  • Fernández MP, Pettibone HL, Bogart JT, Roell CJ, Davey CE, Pranevicius A, Huynh KV, Lennox SM, Kostadinov BS and Shafer OT. (2020) Sites of Circadian Clock Neuron Plasticity Mediate Sensory Integration and Entrainment in Drosophila. Current Biology 30, 2225–2237.
  • Yadlapalli, S., Jiang, C., Bahle, A., Reddy, P., Meyhofer, E., Shafer, O.T. (2018). Circadian clock neurons constantly monitor environmental temperature to set sleep timing. Nature. doi: 10.1038/nature25740. PubMed
  • Yadlapalli, S., Shafer, O.T. (2017). Thermoregulation: How a brain keeps its cool. eLife. 2017;6:e28109. doi: 10.7554/eLife.28109. PubMed
  • Abruzzi, K.C., Zadina, A., Luo, W., Wiyanto, E., Rahman, R., Guo, F., Shafer, O., Rosbash, M. (2017). RNA-seq analysis of Drosophila clock and non-clock neurons reveals neuron-specific cycling and novel candidate neuropeptides. PLoS Genetics, 13(2), [e1006613]. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006613. PubMed
  • Yao, Z., Bennett, A. J., Clem, J. L., & Shafer, O. T. (2016). The Drosophila Clock Neuron Network Features Diverse Coupling Modes and Requires Network-wide Coherence for Robust Circadian Rhythms. Cell Reports, 17(11), 2873-2881. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.11.053. PubMed
  • Schlichting, M., Menegazzi, P., Lelito, K.R., Yao, Z., Buhl, E., Benetta, E.D., Bahle, A., Denike, J., Hodge, J.J., Helfrich-Förster, C., Shafer, O.T. (2016). A neural network underlying circadian entrainment and photoperiodic adjustment of sleep and activity in Drosophila. Journal of Neuroscience, 36(35), 9084-9096. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0992-16.2016. PubMed
  • Oh, Y., Yoon, S. E., Zhang, Q., Chae, H. S., Daubnerová, I., Shafer, O. T., Choe, J., Kim, Y. J. (2014). A Homeostatic Sleep-Stabilizing Pathway in Drosophila Composed of the Sex Peptide Receptor and Its Ligand, the Myoinhibitory Peptide. PLoS Biology, 12(10). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001974. PubMed
  • Collins, B., Kaplan, H. S., Cavey, M., Lelito, K. R., Bahle, A. H., Zhu, Z., Macara, A.M., Roman, G., Shafer, O.T., Blau, J. (2014). Differentially Timed Extracellular Signals Synchronize Pacemaker Neuron Clocks. PLoS Biology, 12(9). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001959. PubMed
  • Shafer, O. T., & Yao, Z. (2014). Pigment-dispersing factor signaling and circadian rhythms in insect locomotor activity. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 1, 73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2014.05.002. PubMed
  • Yao, Z. and Shafer, O.T. (2014). The Drosophila Circadian Clock Is a Variably Coupled Network of Multiple Peptidergic Units. Science. 343(6178): 1516-1520. doi: 10.1126. PubMed

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