James Brian Jaggard

This study identifies brain macrophages in the African turquoise killifish that engulf brain extracellular material, showing age-related decline in engulfment capacity.

The paper shows that Mexican cavefish maintain functional connectivity in the tectum despite losing retinal input, with changes in the tectum being genetically distinct from eye loss.

The paper generates brain atlases of surface and cavefish to identify convergent neuroanatomical and functional changes associated with behavioral evolution.

The paper generates a brain atlas of surface fish and three cavefish populations, revealing convergent neuroanatomical changes associated with evolved behavioral traits.

The paper shows that sleep deprivation impairs Wallerian degeneration in fruit flies, while sleep induction accelerates it through glial activation and engulfment.

The paper demonstrates the successful generation of stable transgenic lines in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system, enabling the expression of fluorescent markers in specific cell types.

This study shows that RNA storage methods like RNAlater and flash freezing affect gene expression, with RNAlater causing biased results in RNAseq experiments.

The paper identifies increased Hypocretin/Orexin signaling as a genetic basis for sleep loss in Mexican cavefish compared to surface fish.