Academic interests
Sleep, astrocytes, brain waste clearance, glymphatics, vascular dynamics, Ca2+ signaling, two-photon microscopy.
Courses taught
- PBL, 2020, 2021
- 4 lectures on neurophysiology for psychology students, 2022
- 2 lectures on astrocyte physiology for Advanced Neuroscience course, 2021, 2022, 2023
Background
I am a postdoctoral researcher at glialab, Rune Enger group. I am also, unofficially, an assistant (to the) regional GliaLab manager. During my PhD, I developed a powerful and unique method that allows us to study what happens in the brain cells of a living, naturally sleeping animal. I describe the path to this discovery here. My colleagues and I made two important discoveries using this method. First, we showed that special brain cells called astrocytes help maintain the quality of deep sleep (Bojarskaite et al., Nature Communications, 2020). Second, we have shown that it is only during sleep that the brain's arteries dilate and contract in special rhythms that improve the movement of cerebrospinal fluid and the removal of harmful neurodegenerative substances during sleep (Bojarskaite et al., Nature Communications, 2023). Since, I have trained 1 PhD student and 2 medical research line students in the method of two-photon imaging of naturall sleeping mice. They are applying this method now to study 1) astrocytic Ca2+ signaling in hippocampus in relation to memory formation during sleep; 2) vascular dynamics in sleep in Alzheimer's disease; 3) the role of aquaporin-4 water channel and endfoot Ca2+ signaling in sleep-vasomotion regulation.
In 2022 I have received a 3-year postdoctoral grant from Nasjonalforeningen for Folkehelsen "Targeting hypertension to improve brain waste clearance" to study sleep vascular dynamics in hypertension.
I have a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from University of Vilnius, a Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Copenhagen and a PhD from University of Oslo.
Media
- Technology Networks on our study "Astrocytes Play an Important Role in Maintaining Slow Wave Sleep", 2020
- Technology Networks on our study "A Beneficial Type of "Brainwashing" Happens While You Sleep", 2023
- Norwegian newspaper VG coverstory "Søvnmysteriet" 2020, about our article "Astrocytic Ca2+ signaling is reduced during sleep and is involved in the regulation of slow wave sleep"
- Norwegian newspaper VG coverstory "Forskning om hjernen og søvn: Kan hindre utvikling av Alzheimers" 2023, about our article "Sleep cycle-dependent vascular dynamics in male mice and the predicted effects on perivascular cerebrospinal fluid flow and solute transport"
- Norwegian newsportal "Dagens Medisin" story "Norsk studie kan bidra til å forebygge Alzheimers: Fant at søvn gir mer effektiv «hjernevask»" about our article "Sleep cycle-dependent vascular dynamics in male mice and the predicted effects on perivascular cerebrospinal fluid flow and solute transport", 2023
- Norwegian popular science news portal Forskning.no about our research "This is how your brain is washed while you sleep", 2023
- Lecture "Når du sover er hjernens vaktmestere i full sving", Research Days Breakfast seminar "Hvorfor sover vi?", 2020
- Norwegian news portal TV2 commentary on a sleep study "Så mye eldre blir hjernen av én søvnløs natt"
- Norwegian news portal Dagblad commentary about sleep temperature "Knuser søvnmyte", 2023
- Interview with norwegian popular science news portal for kids ung.forskning.no "Vi har vaktmestre i hjernen som snakker sammen og rydder opp mens vi sover", 2020
Awards
- David S. Miller "The most promising Young Scientist" award, Gordon Research Conferences "Barriers of the CNS", Colby-Sawyer College, 2018
- 3-year postdoctoral grant from Nasjonalforeningen for Folkehelsen, 2022
- 200.000 NOK from Civitan, 2022