SIU Med School Receives NIH Grant to Study Sleep Problems

A research scientist at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a four-year federal grant from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study sleep problems that develop during kidney disease. Total budget for the grant is $1,223,545.

Linda A. Toth, Ph.D., D.V.M., interim associate dean for research and faculty affairs, professor of pharmacology and director of laboratory animal medicine, is the principal investigator for the project.

People with chronic disease, including kidney disease, often suffer from sleep problems that cause fatigue and interfere with their quality of life and ability to work. This study will try to determine the cause of altered sleep in mice with kidney infections by identifying genes that causes sleep disturbances. If the genes that cause sleep disturbances can be identified, the information might reveal new ways to improve sleep or alleviate fatigue in humans with chronic diseases.

This is the fourth federal grant awarded for Toth's research, which now totals $3.3 million. Her research has focused on trying to identify genes that influence sleep during disease.

Toth joined SIU's faculty in 1999. She earned her veterinary medicine degree at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. (1986) and her doctoral and master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh (1980, 1975) and her bachelor's at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (1972). She was named interim associate dean in 2004.

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