Oliver Cook

Research Interests 

For my thesis, I am studying the impacts of serotonin signaling in the brain on sleep and arousal states. I leverage the genetic toolbox of the fruit fly to disrupt the function of serotonin circuits innervating sensory networks. I find that disrupting as few as two serotonin neurons or their synaptic partners can impact sleep and arousal in a sex and mating status-dependent manner. This work emphasizes the complexity of serotonin's role in sleep and furthers our understanding of how sleep and sensory information is integrated.

Awards 

Trainee in the Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences T32 program

Morrisey Ropp Scholarship (2021)

Teaching Interests

Neuroscience

Cell Biology

Genetics 

Scientific Writing

Pet Spotlight

Opie - Opie lives in Ollie's office, so stop by and say "hey"