The participants of the International Summer School “Neuro-Sleep as a Complex System” visited the Smart Sleep Laboratory, the Research Medical Centre, SSU, on July 12. Leading Russian sleep researchers and neurophysiologists – the staff of the Irkutsk Sleep Medicine Centre, the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the Southern Research Centre, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Grodno State Medical University – learned about the achievements of the SSU scientists.

The tour was conducted by the young researchers led by the chief researcher of the Smart Sleep Laboratory, Chair of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology Oksana Semyachkina-Glushkovskaya.

The conference members looked at all departments of the laboratory: the animal vivarium, the surgical unit, the special rooms for working with cell cultures, the clean rooms designed for conducting research at the cellular and systemic levels in sterile conditions. Since they study sleep, the research is carried out here around the clock.

The laboratory assistants commented on the equipment used, including an electroencephalograph, an infrared laser for photostimulation of the lymph vessels of the brain, as well as the Pheno Master system. Using this modular platform they register the state, of laboratory animals: their weight, feed and fluid intake, physical activity, calorimetry and other indicators.

The guests saw a supermultifoton microscope, the only one in Russia in such a configuration. It was purchased in 2019 thanks to the megagrant of the Russian Ministry of Higher Education and Science. It is with the help of this microscope that scientists do their main work – safely and harmlessly examine the deep structures of the brain and other tissues in real time.

‘It is impressive! We see how brilliantly the vivarium is organised, how carefully the rooms for working with tissue sections are prepared, we examine a very modern microscope for in vivo examination of animal brain tissues during sleep-wake, stereotactic equipment for immersion of electrodes into the brain, and electrophysiological devices for studying sleep physiology. With such equipment, you can not only work at the level of world standards for studying sleep, but also go one step ahead!’ concluded Professor Evgenii Verbitskii of the Southern Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Rostov-on-Don.

The laboratory staff is working in a promising field – the treatment of brain diseases during deep sleep. The pioneering technology of SSU scientists is a smart cap for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease by non-invasive cleansing of brain lymph vessels from beta-amyloid. Already this year, it is planned to use the method of photostimulation developed by the scientists on patients. The clinical research will be conducted by Sechenov University under the leadership of the President of the Russian Society of Sleep Medicine Mikhail Poluektov.

The scientists are striving to make the gadget of smart sleep accessible to everyone, so, they are now developing an individual cap. It will be a flexible device with a disinfection function, which will be integrated into design solutions that are convenient for a particular person.

Since electroencephalographic sensors themselves are not very convenient in everyday use, a scientific group has created a smart watch to track a person's condition during deep sleep. Due to the technologies proposed by the SSU scientists, the therapy can be carried out in everyday life.

The projects of the Smart Sleep Laboratory are at the core of the Technologies of Personalized Medicine strategic project of the Priority 2030 programme. Read more about the achievements of the Smart Sleep Laboratory in the federal media – RIA Novosti, Kommersant, and RBC Trends.

To remind, the International Summer School “Neuro-Sleep as a Complex System” was held in July 10-12 with the support of the RSF megagrant. Russian and international scientists spoke about modern research of the sleeping brain. The experts discussed topics related to fundamental sleep research, as well as approaches to the study of the brain and its lymphatic system.