معرفی
Alex Keene is a Professor & Department Head at Texas A&M University, leading the Keene Lab focused on neural mechanisms underlying sleep, metabolism, and evolutionary adaptations. His research uses Mexican cavefish as a model to study sleep-metabolism interactions and evolutionary changes in nutrient-poor environments. Key contributions include genetic screens, brain atlases, and functional imaging of cavefish neural circuits.
Education:
- B.Sc., University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 2002
- Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2006
Research Interests: Dr. Keene explores how sleep and metabolism are genetically and neurologically integrated, particularly in extreme environments. His lab investigates cavefish adaptations, such as sleep intensity changes and hypothalamic reorganization, to uncover conserved mechanisms in sleep regulation and metabolic survival strategies.
Publications: Recent work highlights sleep’s role in glial function, circadian rhythm disruption in cancer, and cavefish sensory evolution. His studies bridge genetics, neurobiology, and ecology to address fundamental questions in sleep physiology and evolutionary biology.
Labs/Teams: The Keene Lab is located in Butler Hall (Office Rm 100, Lab Rm 201) and collaborates on projects involving comparative genomics, behavioral profiling, and neural imaging in model organisms.
