Ravi Allada

Principal Investigator 

BA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

On his way to becoming a medical doctor, Ravi decided to take a year (and then two) off during medical school to do research at the NIH.  There he caught the research ”bug” and began his career-long interest in sleep, working on mechanisms of general anesthesia in the fruit fly Drosophila. After completing his M.D and a short residency in Clinical Pathology, he did his postdoctoral training with Nobel laureate Michael Rosbash, cloning the core circadian clock gene Clock in Drosophila.  He joined the faculty at Northwestern in 2000 where his lab has discovered core gears of the circadian clock, how those gears drive sleep and wake, and how those pathways are linked to neurodegenerative disease.  He applies similar approaches to reveal the molecular basis of the sleep homeostat, key to understanding the elusive function of sleep. In his spare time, he has served or is serving on various Boards including for the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, the Sleep Research Society and the NIH Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board.

Rajesh Narasimamurthy

Assistant Research Scientist 

MSc, Bharathidasan University, India
PhD, University of Zurich, Switzerland 

Shannon Kincaid

Research Fellow

Ph.D. Virginia Tech

Shannon completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Virginia Tech in 2025. During her time there, she worked under Dr. Timothy Jarome, an expert in the field of learning and memory. While in Dr. Jarome’s lab, her research focused on the epigenetic mechanisms contributing to learning and memory deficits in aged rats, and the role of ubiquitin in learning and memory. She joined the Allada lab in August 2025, where she will focus her research on elaborating the impact that high-risk genes associated with autism spectrum disorder have on molecular pathways of sleep. Outside of the lab, Shannon enjoys spending time with her family, managing her micro-farm, and cultivating flowers.

Farheen Akhtar

Research Fellow

BS, MS, Aligarh Muslim University, India
Ph.D., Aligarh Muslim University, India

Farheen earned her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Aligarh Muslim University, India (2022), where she developed nanoparticle-based photodynamic therapies for multidrug-resistant infections, resulting in an Indian patent. She then pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, investigating circadian rhythms and metabolic regulation in Drosophila and mouse models. After three years at Penn, she has joined the Allada Lab at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan, where her work focuses on sleep homeostasis and its metabolic underpinnings. She is passionate about bridging basic biology with translational therapeutics to address complex biomedical challenges through interdisciplinary science.

Shiju Sisobhan

Research Area Specialist

PhD, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi
BTech, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi

I grew up in the beautiful state of Kerala (India) where I received my bachelor’s and master’s degree in electronics engineering. Then I relocate to Delhi, where I did my Ph.D. in computational biology under Dr. K. Sriram. My work in Ph.D. studies focused on the mathematical modeling of the mammalian circadian rhythm. Then I worked as postdoc at Northwesern University, Chicago and at University of Michigan. In the Allada lab, I am focusing on developing computational tools for analyzing sleep and circadian behavior of Drosophila and human being. I am also working on bioinformatics analysis on bulk and single cell RNA sequencing data, machine learning and biomarker discovery.

Gregory Wesseling

Research Specialist, Lab Manager

MS, Grand Valley State University, Allendale
BS, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant

In graduate school at GVSU, Greg dissected larval drosophila brains to investigate histamine expression in deletion mutants generated through transposon-excision mutagenesis. When Greg joined the Allada lab, he dissected adult drosophila brains to investigate PER expression. Greg now works on project ENCODE to help document where transcription factors act in the fly genome. Before graduate school, Greg spent a summer at the University of Cambridge to study evolution. In his spare time, Greg enjoys watching college football and basketball.

Aldeb Perera

Ph.D. Candidate

BS, University of Illinois at Chicago

A Belizean native, Aldeb moved to Chicago in 2013 where he completed is BS in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After graduating college, Aldeb worked in Dr. Wei Qiu’s lab at Loyola University Chicago for two years investigating liver cancer, after which he began his PhD work at Northwestern University in the Fall of 2020. He joined the Allada lab the following year, where he currently uses molecular biology and omics approaches to deconvolute sleep homeostasis. Outside of lab, Aldeb serves as the president of Northwestern’s SACNAS chapter, studies classical piano at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, and is a member of NEIU’s Judo Club. In his free time, he enjoys videogames, time outdoors, and game nights with his siblings.

Julia Kravchenko

Ph.D. Candidate

BS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Julia completed her BS in Neuroscience in 2022 at UMich, where she discovered her love of research as an honor thesis student in Dr. Kent Berridge’s lab. After graduating, she worked as a research technician in Dr. Joanna Mattis’s lab studying the role of neural circuitry in seizure severity. In 2023, Julia matriculated to NGP, where under the mentorship of Drs Catherine Kaczorowski and Ravi Allada she now studies the genetic basis of sleep disruptions in Alzheimer’s disease using flies, mice, and humans. She’s happy to talk about fiber art, fantasy novels, and powerlifting.

Ph.D. Students

Master’s Students

For Complete Publication List View on Google Scholar

The goals of the Allada laboratory are to make important discoveries in the areas of sleep and circadian rhythms and to provide engaged scientific training and an inclusive environment for a diverse group of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates. To accomplish this goal, we (mentor and mentees) collaborate by proposing novel and insightful hypotheses, carefully planning and executing well-designed experiments, rigorously and quantitatively analyzing experimental results, and lastly, interpreting results in light of controls and the published literature. Ultimately, the tangible products of our collective efforts are high impact publications that communicate our findings, competitive grant proposals that provide the funding necessary to sustain our efforts, and future careers for trainees whether in academia or elsewhere.

The Allada laboratory seeks energetic and highly motivated individuals who can excel as part of a team diverse in background and training. Our research incorporates a wide range of multidisciplinary approaches including molecular (e.g., RNA sequencing, luminescence reporter imaging), cellular (e.g., connectomics, optical imaging), and behavioral (e.g., in vivo neuronal activation). Experience with molecular biology, RNA-sequencing, bioinformatics, patch clamp electrophysiology, optical imaging, and/or Drosophila highly preferred.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Interested individuals should send a brief statement of research interests, CV, and the names of three references by email to rallada@umich.edu.

PhD Students

Prospective PhD graduate students should apply to a relevant graduate training program at University of Michigan. Enrolled students interested in organizing a rotation in the Allada Lab should contact Dr. Ravi Allada directly at rallada@umich.edu.

Undergraduates

Undergraduates interested in research—whether for independent study, full-time summer research, or lab assistance through the work-study program—should  email Greg Wesseling at gregwess@med.umich.edu.

Ravi Allada, MD

Michigan Neuroscience Institute
University of Michigan

NCRC B25-1797
2800 Plymouth Rd
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2800

Email: rallada@umich.edu

The Allada Lab

Address:
2800 Plymouth Rd
NCRC B25-1721
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2800

For undergrad research, contact Greg Wesseling: gregwess@med.umich.edu