Dr. Akihiro Yamanaka served as a professor at the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (RIEM), Nagoya University (Nagoya, Japan) from 2012-2022.  He is currently an investigator at the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (CIBR). Dr. Yamanaka has contributed significantly to the understanding of the role of orexin (hypocretin) neurons to physiological homeostasis, with 125 publications in scientific journals, including Nature, Science, Science Advances, Neuron, PNAS, J Neuroscience, and J Clinical Investigations. His laboratory currently uses state-of-the-art experimental techniques including in vivo and in vitro electrophysiology, transgenic mice models and optogenetics to reveal the role of the hypothalamic neurons which synthesize neuropeptide such as orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) and corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness, sleep-related brain function and homeostasis.