Laura Bojarskaite

Postdoctoral Fellow - GLIA
Image of Laura Bojarskaite
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Visiting address Domus Medica Sognsvannsveien 9 0372 Oslo
Postal address Postboks 1105 Blindern 0317 Oslo

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

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

Publications

  • Bojarskaite, Laura; Vallet, Alexandra Honorine Emilie; Bjørnstad, Daniel Marelius; Binder, Kristin Maria Gullestad; Cunen, Celine & Heuser, Kjell [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2023). Sleep cycle-dependent vascular dynamics in male mice and the predicted effects on perivascular cerebrospinal fluid flow and solute transport. Nature Communications. ISSN 2041-1723. 14. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36643-5. Full text in Research Archive
  • Åbjørsbråten, Knut Sindre; Skaaraas, Gry Helen Enger Syverstad; Cunen, Celine Marie Løken; Bjørnstad, Daniel Marelius; Binder, Kristin Maria Gullestad & Bojarskaite, Laura [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2022). Impaired astrocytic Ca2+ signaling in awake-behaving Alzheimer’s disease transgenic mice. eLIFE. ISSN 2050-084X. doi: 10.7554/eLife.75055. Full text in Research Archive
  • Bjørnstad, Daniel Marelius; Åbjørsbråten, Knut Sindre; Hennestad, Eivind; Cunen, Celine; Hermansen, Gudmund Horn & Bojarskaite, Laura [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2021). Begonia - a two-photon imaging analysis pipeline for astrocytic Ca2+ signals. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. ISSN 1662-5102. 15. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.681066. Full text in Research Archive
  • Bojarskaite, Laura; Bjørnstad, Daniel Marelius; Pettersen, Klas Henning; Cunen, Celine; Hermansen, Gudmund Horn & Åbjørsbråten, Knut Sindre [Show all 12 contributors for this article] (2020). Astrocytic Ca2+ signaling is reduced during sleep and is involved in the regulation of slow wave sleep. Nature Communications. ISSN 2041-1723. 11. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17062-2. Full text in Research Archive

View all works in Cristin

  • Boccara, Charlotte N; Hu, Hua; Enger, Rune & Bojarskaite, Laura (2020). Hvorfor sover vi?

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Published Feb. 8, 2024 3:54 PM - Last modified Feb. 19, 2024 1:07 PM

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