Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology

University of Zurich

Winterthurerstrasse 190

CH-8057 Zurich

Switzerland

Phone: +41-1 - 635 59 59

Fax: +41-1 - 635 57 07

Graduate trainees and Post-doc are funded from research grants

Opportunities for funding will be discussed upon request

Vice-president ("Prorektor für Forschung") of the University of Zurich since 2000.

Main Goals, Keywords: Sleep regulation, circadian rhythm, EEG analysis, brain mapping, molecular genetic analysis of sleep, modeling of sleep and circadian rhythmicity. Sleep and regional cerebral blood flow assessed by PET (collaborative project with Clinic of Nuclear Medicine).

Previous and Current Research: Investigation of the physiological and neurochemical processes underlying the regulation of sleep in humans and animals. Effect of CNS-active substances on sleep, daytime vigilance and body or brain temperature (e.g. benzodiazepine hypnotics and analogs; alcohol, caffeine, melatonin and synthetic congeners; adenosine receptor agonists and antagonists; serotonin-2 antagonists). Comparative sleep physiology. Sleep and circadian rhythms in normal and genetically manipulated mice (collaborative project). Signal analysis of the sleep EEG and mathematical modeling of sleep processes. Changes of regional cerebral blood flow as assessed by PET after sleep deprivation and hypnotics (collaborative project). Sleep and immunology (collaborative projects).

Future Projects: Topographic analysis of the sleep EEG; search for use-dependent local features of sleep; clinical sleep studies

Tobler Irene, Ph.D.

President of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS). President of the Swiss Society of Sleep Research, Sleep Medicine and Chronobiology.

Main Goals, Keywords: Sleep regulation. Comparative studies in different species. Evolution of sleep and sleep regulation. Molecular genetic aspects of sleep regulation, including the role of prion protein, GABA_A and immunology. Circadian rhythms. Hypometabolic states and sleep.

Previous and Current Research: Investigation of the physiological and neurochemical processes underlying the regulation of sleep in animals. Comparative sleep physiology. Evolution of sleep and sleep regulation. Molecular genetic aspects of sleep regulation: Normal function of the prion protein. Role of the GABA_A-benzodiazepine receptor in sleep regulation (collaborative project). Sleep and immunology (collaborative project). Natural hypometabolic states and sleep: Torpor in the Djungarian hamster. The role of glycogen in sleep (collaborative project). Sleep and circadian rhythms in transgenic mice (collaborative projects).

Future Projects: Sleep in mice devoid of prion protein. Investigation of global versus use dependent features of sleep in mice and rats.

Achermann, Peter, Ph.D.

Main Goals, Keywords: Sleep and sleep regulation, circadian rhythms: mathematical modeling and biosignal analysis (sleep regulation, circadian rhythms, EEG analysis, brain mapping, modeling).

Previous and Current Research: Signal analysis of the EEG. Mathematical modeling of sleep processes and circadian rhythms. Topographic analysis of the EEG. Effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields of type GSM on sleep and sleep EEG. Sleep and regional cerebral blood flow assessed by PET (collaborative project with Clinic of Nuclear Medicine). Sleep and EEG analysis in parkinsonian and pain patients before and after stereotactic neurosurgery (collaborative project with the Clinic of Neurosurgery), and in stroke patients (collaborative project with Clinic of Neurology, University of Bern). Effects of rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on EEG topography during waking and subsequent sleep (collaborative project with Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group, University of Bern).