Sha was born and raised in Wuhan, China, and conducted his PhD research at the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he studied developmental biology in zebrafish.  He then moved to Baltimore to perform the postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University, USA with Dr. Mark Wu, studying the molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying sleep and circadian rhythm in fruit flies.  After seven years in the US, he flew across the ocean again to set up his own lab at VIB-KU Leuven, Belgium.

Joana is from Cologne, Germany.  She received her MSc in Neuroscience from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2016.  During this time, she studied sleep-wake disturbances in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease at the University Hospital Zurich.  After her master's studies, she studied the synaptic plasticity of human neurons transplanted into mice at Imperial College London.  She joined the Flysleep lab in October 2017.  Joana enjoys traveling, photography, scuba diving, and snowboarding in her free time.

Antonio comes from Huelva, Spain.  He achieved a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Seville in 2016.  Before joining the Flysleep Lab as a technician in February 2019, he completed his Master's Thesis in Bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he worked on free software tools for the quantitative analysis of Mass Spectrometry proteomics data.  He started his Ph.D. research on fly sleep behavior in July 2021. Antonio enjoys learning languages (both human and programming), exercising, and traveling in his free time.

Miranda comes from Nottingham, UK.  She received her BSc in Biomedical Science at Manchester Met University before moving to London to first work as a Clinical Research Assistant and complete her MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London.  She then worked as a technician at University College London for two years, studying ALS-FTD in Drosophila.  Miranda joined the Flysleep lab in June 2019.  She enjoys sewing, aerial arts, and scuba diving in her spare time.

coming soon...

Yifan comes from Changsha, China.  He pursued a master's degree at Chinese Academy of Sciences and  University of Copenhagen. After his master's studies in 2019, he worked as a technician at the University of Bordeaux and studied the role of insular circuits in anxiety and emotional processing.  In March 2021, Yifan joined the Fly Sleep Lab to study the role of sleep on Drosophila central synapses. In his free time, he loves binge-watching TV and socializing in bars.

Erik comes from Tallinn, Estonia. He received his BSc from the Maastricht Science Programme in 2018 before moving to Leuven to pursue an MSc in Biomedical Engineering. His academic interests revolve around how physics and engineering can be applied to create tools to study nature and humans. This would include work with advanced microscopy techniques, medical imaging systems, and brain-computer interfaces. He joined the Flysleep Lab as a technician in January of 2023. Erik enjoys music (both listening and playing), rock climbing, and culinary arts in his free time.

coming soon...