David Prober

David Prober is a Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba (1995) and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (2002). His research focuses on understanding the genetic and neuronal mechanisms regulating sleep and wakefulness using zebrafish as a model organism. The Prober Lab employs advanced techniques including genetics, optogenetics, chemogenetics, whole-brain imaging, and electrophysiology to explore sleep's evolutionary conservation and molecular underpinnings.

Key research areas include sleep-epilepsy interactions, norepinephrine-glial signaling, and sodium homeostasis's role in sleep regulation. His work bridges basic neuroscience with translational applications, addressing sleep disorders and neurobehavioral mechanisms. Recent studies investigate ketamine's effects on neural circuits and cloud computing infrastructure for large-scale data analysis in biological research.

Prober's lab has developed open-source tools for animal facility monitoring and pioneered methods to study sleep in zebrafish. His contributions span sleep genetics, neuroendocrinology, and developmental biology, with over 150 publications since 2000. He has no listed awards or grants in the provided texts.