About SBU

Notable publications

• Benington JH. Fundamentals of electroencephalography and other biopotentials. In: Fundamentals of Sleep Technology, ed. Butkov L and Lee-Chiong T. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins, 2007.
• Frank MG and Benington JH. The role of sleep in memory consolidation and brain plasticity: Dream or reality? The Neuroscientist, 12: 477-488, 2006. 
• Benington JH. Homeostatic and circadian influences. In: Sleep Deprivation: Basic Science, Physiology, and Behavior, ed. Kushida CA. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2005.
• Benington JH and Frank MG. Cellular and molecular connections between sleep and synaptic plasticity. Progress in Neurobiology 69: 71-101, 2003.
• Benington JH. Debating how REM sleep is regulated. Journal of Sleep Research 11:29-31, 2002.
• Veasey SC, Valladares O, Fenik P, Kapfhamer D, Sanford L, Benington J, Bucan M.   An automated system for recording and analysis of sleep in mice. Sleep 23:1025-40, 2000.
• Horan SM and Benington JH. A protocol for using electronic messaging to facilitate academic committee deliberations. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 22:187-197, 2000.
• Benington JH. Sleep homeostasis and the function of sleep. Sleep 23:959-966, 2000.
• Benington JH and Heller HC. Implications of sleep deprivation experiments for our understanding of sleep homeostasis. Sleep 22:1033-1037, 1999.
• Benington JH. Why we believe what we believe about REM-sleep regulation. In: Rapid-Eye Movement Sleep, ed. Mallick BM and Inoue S. New Delhi: Narosa Publishing House, 1999.
• Swanson RA, Benington JH. Astrocyte glucose metabolism under normal and pathological conditions in vitro. Developmental Neurobiology 18:515-521, 1996.
• Benington JH, Woudenberg MC, Heller HC. Apamin, a selective SK potassium channel blocker, suppresses REM sleep without a compensatory rebound. Brain Research 692:86-92, 1995.
• Benington JH, Kodali SK, Heller HC. Stimulation of A1 adenosine receptors mimics the electroencephalographic effects of sleep deprivation. Brain Research 692:79-85,  1995.
• Benington JH, Heller HC. Monoaminergic and cholinergic modulation of REM-sleep timing in rats. Brain Research 681: 141-146, 1995.
• Benington, JH, Heller, HC. Restoration of brain energy metabolism as the function of sleep. Progress in Neurobiology 45:347-360, 1995.
• Benington JH, Woudenberg MC, Heller HC. REM-sleep propensity accumulates during two-hour REM-sleep deprivation in the rest period in rats. Neuroscience Letters 180:76-80, 1994.
• Benington JH, Heller HC. Does the function of REM sleep concern non-REM sleep or waking? Progress in Neurobiology 44:433-449, 1994.
• Benington JH, Heller HC. REM-sleep timing is controlled homeostatically by accumulation of REM-sleep propensity during non-REM sleep. American Journal of Physiology 266: R1992-R2000, 1994.
• Benington JH, Kodali SK, Heller HC. Scoring transitions to REM sleep in rats based on the EEG phenomena of pre-REM sleep: an improved analysis of sleep structure. Sleep 17:28-36, 1994.

Scanned reprints of the above articles are provided as a courtesy for educational and research use only. They should not be further disseminated without permission of the publishers.

My research at St. Bonaventure University has included studies of:

• the effects of sleep deprivation on cellular energy metabolism in rats (in collaboration with researchers at Stanford University)
• the effects of oxidative stress on cellular energy metabolism and ADP ribose production in primary cultures of astrocytes (in collaboration with Dr. Raymond Swanson at University of California at San Francisco)
• changes in cellular energy metabolism during spore germination in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans (in a departmental collaboration with Dr. John Kupinski).

In these projects, we have used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to measure ATP, ADP, AMP, NAD, phosphocreatine, and ADP ribose concentrations in cellular extracts. Measurement of the concentrations of these molecules indicates the metabolic energy state of the cells in question.

Bonaventure students Chantal Serafica (’99, Biochemistry), Katherine Sixt (’01, Biochemistry), Jennifer Didas (’00, Biochemistry), and Christie Lysiak ('03, Biology)  have worked with me on these projects. Katherine Sixt and Christie Lysiak presented their findings at Rochester Academy of Sciences Scientific Paper Sessions. In addition, Ben Wolf (’06, Biology), went with me to Stanford University and participated in sleep research in H. Craig Heller’s laboratory in the Department of Biological Sciences for eight weeks in the summer of 2004.

Currently, we are studying the cellular energetics of conjugation in the single-celled protist, Tetrahymena thermophila. Like many single-celled organisms, tetrahymena usually reproduce asexually. But under conditions of starvation, pairs of cells fuse and exchange DNA in a form of sexual reproduction (as in the case of the pair of cells to the right in the above figure, which are in the early stages of fusion).

Remarkably little work has been done investigating what molecular signaling mechanisms are stimulated by starvation and induce conjugation in these organisms. Pat Doret (’06, Biology) and Luke Donius (’07, Biology) have been working with me on this problem, using a combination of pharmacological treatments to induce or inhibit conjugation, and HPLC analysis to measure levels of energy intermediates.