Raffaele Sarnataro

Understanding how sleep need is encoded in the brain is a burning quest of current neuroscience. 
Sleep is vital and universal, yet little is known about its biological functions. A crucial benefit must be provided, in order to balance the enormous risks to which an animal is exposed every time it disconnects from the external world during sleep.

In my work at the University of Oxford, I have been combining ultrastructural, molecular, transcriptomic, transgenic, single- and two-photon microscopy, and behavioural approaches to investigate how sleep-control neurons operate and how sleep need is physically encoded in their molecular machinery and circuitry network dynamics.

An internal process that generates sleep need is tracked by a sleep homeostat, which operates the periodic discharge of this pressure by initiating sleep, and sparking sleep-specific oscillations throughout the brain. 
My work has explored both aspects of sleep-control (tracking sleep need and generating sleep-specific oscillations).

In the fly model, neurons projecting to a brain area called dorsal fan-shaped body have been pinpointed as key sleep controllers. 
We discovered that these neurons track sleep need via the electrons flowing through the electron transport chain of their mitochondria: tuning this flow, just in this small set of neurons, bidirectionally regulates the animal’s sleep. Our findings have mechanistically linked the cellular organelles responsible for metabolism to sleep-control, suggesting its metabolic origin.
We also found that the same sleep-control neurons generate oscillations whose power depends on sleep need and is tuned by neuronal plasticity. These oscillations resemble those characteristic of mammalian sleeping brains, but differ in their origin: a peculiar half-centre oscillator. This indicates that specific oscillatory patterns might be a universal blueprint of sleep need. 

While my research focuses on the fly brain, mechanisms underlying the universal and basic function of sleep might represent general principles conserved across the evolutionary tree.
An in-depth knowledge of the sleep-control processes will inevitably provide important clues about the physiological variables linked to the essential function of sleep.

• Sir Farrar J and Sarnataro R (2020) Science in the control room. A conversation on vaccines and decision-making in global challenges, in Le parole della crisi, le politiche dopo la pandemia. Guida non emergenziale al post-Covid-19, M. Malvicini, T. Portaluri, A. Martinengo et al., Editoriale Scientifica, 271-280. 
  Interview article to Sir Jeremy Farrar, Director of The Wellcome Trust (in Italian).

• Liva F and Sarnataro R (2020) We sleep what we eat. Phenotype Journal, 35, 12-15.
  SciComm article on the interplay between nutrition and sleep.

Dr Raffaele Sarnataro is a Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College Oxford, and a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Neuroscience, working in the Miesenböck group. 

Raffaele studied at Scuola Normale Superiore and, in parallel, at University of Pisa, Italy, obtaining a BSc in Biotechnologies, an MSc in Molecular and Cell Biology, and a Diploma di Licenza in Biology.

After a visiting research experience at Harvard Medical School, supported by the award of an Armenise-Harvard Foundation Summer Fellowship, Raffaele joined the 4-year Doctoral Programme in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, funded by a Wellcome Trust four-year PhD Studentship in Science.
During his first year, he obtained an MSc in Neuroscience, working with Prof. Gero Miesenböck and Prof. Colin Akerman for his rotation projects.

He then completed a DPhil (PhD) in Neuroscience in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (University of Oxford), working in the Miesenböck lab at the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, co-supervised by Prof. Vladyslav Vyazovskiy.

During his time in Oxford, Raffaele obtained a Jesus College Graduate Scholarship, gaining Oxford Scholar status in 2019, and received several academic awards by the Physiological Society, the British Neuroscience Association, the Guarantors of Brain, and Gordon Research Conferences.
In 2024, he was awarded a Fulford Junior Research Fellowship by Somerville College Oxford.

Raffaele has been President of the Oxford University Cortex Club, the neuroscience student forum, where neuroscience is discussed in formats ranging from small debates to panel discussions, to symposia with other universities, with talks featuring internationally prominent speakers and early career researchers. At the same time, he is associate member of the Italian Center for Excellence and Transdisciplinary Studies, long-term collaborator of Italian National Association of Natural Sciences Teachers and Amgen Biotech Experience Italy, and was jury member at the 29^th International Biology Olympiad, contributing to science communications and public engagement at various educational levels.

• Sarnataro R, Velasco CD, Monaco N, Kempf A, Miesenböck G (2024) Mitochondrial origins of the pressure to sleep. bioRxiv, 2024.02.23.581770; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.23.581770

• Hasenhuetl PS*, Sarnataro R*, Vrontou E, Rorsman HO, Talbot CB, Brain R, Miesenböck G (2024) A half-centre oscillator encodes sleep pressure. bioRxiv, 2024.02.23.581780; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.23.581780
  [*shared first authorship]

• Sarnataro R (2023) Flexible neuronal mitochondrial dynamics control sleep. Proceedings of the 14^th UK-Korea Neuroscience Symposium, 38.

• Mansel C, Sarnataro R, Liu PJ (2021) A critical evaluation of the National Innovation Accelerator programme: comparing eHealth and medical device-based innovations. British Journal of Healthcare Management. Vol. 27, No. 4. doi: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2020.0064