Name：Xi-hui-min DAI
Teaching Title：Professor
E-mail：xhmdai@suda.edu.cn
Research Interests：
1) Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of sleep regulation.
2) Molecular and genetic dissection of sleep-metabolism interactions.
3) Study on the regulation of gut-brain axis and environmental signals in sleep and neurodegenerative diseases.
Resume：
Prof.Dai earned her Ph.D. degree from the School of Life Sciences, Peking University in 2017. She subsequentlydid her postdoctoral research at the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Brandeis University, USA, under the mentorship of Dr. Yi Rao and Dr. Michael Rosbash (Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2017) respectively, and joined Soochow University as a professor since 2025. Prof.Dai's research focuses on understanding the relationship between sleep, metabolism, andcognition.Combining classical strategies such as genetic and pharmacological experiments, with advanced tools including CRISPR-Cas9, whole-brain calcium imaging, and neural circuit tracing, she has discovered unexpected roles of environmental signals from the gut and the sensorimotor system in sleep regulation.She has published articles in internationally renowned journals such as Science Advances, Nature Communications, and Sleep, obtained 3 patents and has been invited to present her work at international conferences, including the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR).Her future research will delve into the molecular mechanisms of how sleep need is sensed, investigate the long-term effects of sleep deprivation, and explore the relevance of these findings to neurodegenerative diseases.
Selected Publications：
1. Dai, X.1, Le, J.Q., Ma, D., and Rosbash, M.* Four SpsP neurons are an integrating sleep regulation hub in Drosophila. Science Advances 10,eads0652(2024)
2. Dai, X.1, Zhou, E.1,Yang W., Zhang X., Zhang W., and Rao Y.* D-Serine made by serine racemase in Drosophila intestine plays a physiological role in sleep. Nature Communications 10, 1986 (2019).
3. Dai X.1*, Zhou E.1, Yang W., Mao R., Zhang W., and Rao Y. Molecular resolution of a behavioral paradox: sleep and arousal are regulated by distinct acetylcholine receptors in different neuronal types in Drosophila. Sleep, 2021 Jul;44(7) zsab017 (2021)
4. Dai X.1, Yang W.1, Zhang X., Zhou E., Liu Y., Wang T., Zhang W., Zhang X., and Rao Y.* ppGpp is present in, and functions to regulate sleep of, Drosophila. hLife 1, 98-114 (2023)
5. Ma D.1, Le J.Q.,Dai, X., Diaz, M.M., Abruzzi K.C., and Rosbash M.* Transcriptomic DN3 clock neuron subtypes regulate Drosophila sleep. Science Advances 11,eadr4580(2025)