Master’s project – the role of sleep on brain cleaning

Master’s project on the role of sleep on the glymphatic system

In the wild, a short moment of inattentiveness can mean the difference between life and death if a predator is approaching, and still, all animals, including humans, are forced to spend a large amount of their life sleeping. The question of why sleep is so important that it is worth risking your life for has long baffled scientist but recent findings have brought us one step closer to understanding the need for sleep; during sleep, the brain is cleaned for waste products produced by brain cells during wakefulness. The cleaning system of the brain was named the glymphatic system, and will be the main focus of this thesis project. Because the discovery of the glymphatic system is relatively new, there are still many things we don’t understand yet, and there are many possibilities to adapt the project to your own interests.

We are looking for a highly motivated master student who is interested in how the brain works and can spend a minimum of one year working on the project. During the project, you will learn to work with mice and do various methods such as in-vivo fluorescence imaging, EEG, and/or SPECT. The candidate should preferably have taken the FELASA animal course or be willing to take this prior to, or at the beginning of the thesis period. Working on this project, you will gain insight into in-vivo methods used to study the brain and be part of a cutting-edge project in an active and diverse research group.

SPECT and CT scan of a mouse injected with tracer (cyan) into the CSF. This method makes it possible to track CSF movement into the brain over time, and thereby investigate glymphatic activity in different states.

The project will be performed in the Nedergaard lab at the University of Copenhagen. The Nedergaard lab is where the glymphatic system was first discovered, and is an ambitious and international research group employing multiple different techniques to study the brain. Furthermore, we have a great community where everyone are always ready to help or give advice, and when we are not trying to solve the mysteries of the brain, we have our weekly running club, our soup club, and other more or less spontaneous social events. 

For more information

Please contact Natalie Hauglund ( natalie.hauglund@sund.ku.dk )