Dr. Joseph Bedont is a post-doctoral fellow at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His work examines the relationship between urea cycle abnormalities and sleep and fatigue disorders. Here, under the joint mentorship of Drs. Akhilesh Reddy, Amita Sehgal, and Sigrid Veasey, he will test the hypothesis that changes in nitrogen levels from the urea cycle to polyamine synthesis drive sleep when sleep deprivation is acute, and drive neurodegeneration when sleep deprivation is chronic. He will utilize mass spectrometry to test what mechanisms link sleep deprivation to nitrogen metabolism and whether polyamine increases contribute to worsening of Alzheimer’s pathology by sleep deprivation; he will use RNA interference to examine how polyamine and putrescine synthesis promote sleep. These experiments will be conducted in Drosophila and mouse models. By improving our understanding of the connection between sleep loss and polyamines, Dr. Bedont’s work may lead to improved understanding of and treatment for sleep disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Bedont received his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester. He received his PhD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.