Today marks an exciting time of the year. Sure, it is when folks are celebrating with family and friends over the Christmas and New Years’ break. True, it is a time to demonstrate to those we love that we love through acts of kindness and selflessness. Yet, what makes this a particularly exciting time of the year is the Sleep Ecophysiology Group’s year-end wrap-up as we Look Back to Look Ahead!
The composition of the Group has changed markedly in 2024. Erika Zaid became Dr Erika Zaid after the successful review of her dissertation, To sleep or not to sleep: Can mating dasyurids provide insight into the evolution and function of sleep? Before doing so, Erika earned herself a very nice first-author paper in Current Biology on sacrificial sleep by male antechinus during the breeding season, for which she used a variety of techniques including video, accelerometry, electrophysiology, endocrinology, and metabolomics. Her work was featured in Nature, Science, The New York Times, and a smattering of other media outlets.
Hannah Elmes joined our group in 2024 to do her Honours. Working closely with the histology experts (Shaun Collin, Caroline Kerr, Timothy Roth), Hannah produced an original Honours thesis on “Age-dependent changes in neuron count and volume in the hippocampal formation of racing pigeons (Columba livia)“. To do so, Hannah had to learn to section, mount, stain, and count (using unbiased stereology) pigeon brains along an age gradient. Hannah earned an exceptionally high grade of her efforts (91%) and was offered both a MSc and PhD scholarship by the university. Fortunately, Hannah took the latter and joins us in February 2025 to start her sleep-centric PhD. Welcome, Hannah Elmes BSc (Hons)!
Also joining the lab as members external to La Trobe are:
Ethan Renner working primarily with Craig Radford at the University of Auckland. Ethan will study the physiology of sleep in cartilaginous fishes, which builds on our largely behavioural work with this group of animals (and also on our “mixed-success attempt” at electrophysiology that we published in 2024). The fingers-crossed aim of his PhD will be an understanding of how sharks that do not stop swimming (so-called ram ventilating sharks) sleep. Welcome Ethan!
Vincent Knowles based with Raoul Mulder at The University of Melbourne. Vincent is no stranger to the lab, having done his MSc with Raoul, Anne (Aulsebrook) and me on the spatial and temporal ecology of wild black swans. Vincent now applies those skills to the study of Cape Barren geese on Phillip Island. The geese are stunning: light grey backs, a bill the color of key-lime pie, and black feet leading to red legs that gives the appearance they are wearing socks. But lo! The geese are abundant on Phillip Island (and some say too abundant) such that tension exists between farmers and hungry geese. Vincent will provide some of the first data on where the geese go, when, and what do they do once they are there. His project is co-funded by Phillip Island Nature Parks. All of us hope for sleep-related insights that may lurk in his accelerometry based data.
And so, in 2025, the lab will consist of Hannah (based at La Trobe), Ethan and Vincent. Keen to join? An e-mail is a good place to start.
Some of our alumni have important news to share as well. Anne Aulsebrook returned from her Marie Curie postdoc in Germany to land an Alfred Deakin Fellowship at nearby Deakin University working with Kate Buchanan. Off to an enviable start, Anne also secured an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) which affords her a three-year salary to conduct research. Robin Johnsson finished his postdoc at Franklin & Marshall College (USA). Robin returned to his native Sweden to score the sleep of young and aged pigeons, and to plan his next steps. It is noteworthy that Robin had a first-author quick guide in the journal Current Biology this year, and a co-first author paper in Biology Open. Shauni Omond has enjoyed her first one-half year at Harvard University / Brigham and Women’s Hospital where she now studies the relationship between performance in non-flatworm (human) athletes and sleep. Shauni had two first-author papers in 2024 (on flatworms) in the Journal of Experimental Zoology A and the Journal of Comparative Physiology B.
One final thing to mention on 2024. Much of my own 2024 was spent in my living room reading, writing, and meeting electronically with Barrett Klein (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse) and Niels Rattenborg (Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence). The three of us were contracted to write a book dedicated to the comprehensive coverage of sleep in animals. Being one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life, I am indebted to these two gents for the opportunity. The submitted draft is now in safe editorial hands and should be available in the second half of 2025 with the provisional title, Somnozoology: Sleep Across the Animal Kingdom.
Well done All on a successful 2024 with green shoots for success in 2025! Happy Holidays!
Sleep Ecophysiology Group 