Dr Ed Harding University positionResearch Associate DepartmentsDepartment of Clinical Biochemistry InstitutesInstitute of Metabolic Science Home pagehttps://scholar.google.com/citatio... (personal home page) Research ThemesInterestsMidlife obesity and diabetes substantially increase the risk of dementia, but the mechanisms are unknown. In my current position in the Merkle laboratory I am attempting to understand the influence of obesity and diabetes on neurodegenerative processes and how these could be exploited to identify tractable drug targets My research strategy has three components: 1) Understanding mechanisms that connect obesity and diabetes to neurodegeneration 2) Repurposing ‘old’ drugs as new treatments for dementia 3) New methods for automated and unbiased in vivo validation of new therapeutics I primarily work with prion-induced neurodegenerative models combined with automated behavioural testing and “omics” technologies, including RNA-sequencing, lipidomics and peptidomics, as well as biochemistry, histology, multivariate analysis and machine learning. Research Focus
EquipmentBehavioural analysis Computational modelling Confocal microscopy Fluorescence microscopy Immunohistochemistry CollaboratorsNo collaborators listed Associated News ItemsKey publicationsHarding, EC; Ba, W, Zahir, R, Xiao Y, Yustos R, Hsieh B, Lignos L, Vyssotski AL, Merkle FT, Constandinou TG, Franks NP, Wisden W (2021), “Nitric oxide synthase neurons in the medial preoptic hypothalamus are sleep active and contribute to regulating NREM, REM sleep and body temperature profiles. ” Frontiers in Neuroscience Harding EC, Franks NP, Wisden W (2020), “Sleep and thermoregulation” Current Opinion in Physiology Harding EC, Franks NP, Wisden W (2019), “The Temperature dependence of Sleep” Frontiers in Neuroscience 13(336) Harding EC, Yu X, Miao A, Andrews N,,Ma Y, Ye Z, Lignos L, Miracca G, Ba W, Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Wisden W, Franks NP (2018), “A Neuronal Hub Binding Sleep Initiation and Body Cooling in Response to a Warm External Stimulus” Current Biology 28(14): 2263-2273 Publications2022Harding EC, Zhang Z, Dong H and Yu X (2022), “Editorial: Behaviors and Neural Circuits in Sleep and Sedation” Frontiers in Neuroscience 2020Yu X, Ba W, Zhao G, Ma Y, Harding EC, Ying L, Wang D, Li H, Zhang P, Shi Y, Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Dong H, NP Franks, Wisden W (2020), “Dysfunction of ventral tegmental area GABA neurons causes mania-like behavior” Molecular Psychiatry 1-16 2019Hsieh B, Harding EC, Wisden W, Franks NP, Constandinou TG (2019), “A Miniature Neural Recording Device to Investigate Sleep and Temperature Regulation in Mice” 2019 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS) Ma Y, Miracca G, Yu X, Harding EC, Miao A,Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Franks NP, Wisden W (2019), “Galanin neurons unite sleep homeostasis and ?2-adrenergic sedation” Current Biology 29(19)3315-3322. e3 Yu X, Li W, Ma Y, Tossell K, Harris JJ, Harding EC, Ba W, Miracca G, Wang D, Li L, Guo J, Chen M, Li Y, Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Burdakov D, Yang Q, Dong H, Franks NP, Wisden W (2019), “GABA and glutamate neurons in the VTA regulate sleep and wakefulness” Nature Neuroscience 22(1):106-119 Yu X, Ma Y, Harding EC, Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Franks NP, Wisden W (2019), “Genetic lesioning of histamine neurons increases sleep–wake fragmentation and reveals their contribution to modafinil-induced wakefulness” Sleep 42(5). pii: zsz031 2018Gelegen C, Miracca G, Ran MZ, Harding EC, Ye Z, Yu X, Tossell K, Houston CM, Yustos R, Hawkins ED, Vyssotski AL, Dong HL, Wisden W, Franks NP (2018), “Excitatory Pathways from the Lateral Habenula Enable Propofol-Induced Sedation” Current Biology 28(4):580-587 2016Uygun DS, Ye Z, Zecharia AY, Harding EC, Yu X, Yustos R, Vyssotski AL, Brickley SG, Franks NP, Wisden W. (2016), “Bottom-Up versus Top-Down Induction of Sleep by Zolpidem Acting on Histaminergic and Neocortex Neurons” Journal of Neuroscience 36(44):11171-11184 2015Zhang Z, Ferretti V, Güntan ?, Moro A, Steinberg EA, Ye Z, Zecharia AY, Yu X, Vyssotski AL, Brickley SG, Yustos R, Pillidge ZE, Harding EC, Wisden W, Franks NP. (2015), “Neuronal ensembles sufficient for recovery sleep and the sedative actions of ?2 adrenergic agonists” Nature Neuroscience 18(4):553-561 2014Jégouzo SA, Harding EC, Acton O, Rex MJ, Fadden AJ, Taylor ME, Drickamer K (2014), “Defining the conformation of human mincle that interacts with mycobacterial trehalose dimycolate” 2014 24(12):1291-300 |