St. Bonaventure University

Faculty


Benington, Joel

joel-benington

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT
Biology
ACADEMIC SCHOOL
School of Arts and Sciences

TITLES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Professor, Biology
Chair of three programs: Behavioral Neuroscience, Bioinformatics, Health & Society
CONTACT
Office phone: (716) 375-2564
Send an email
OFFICE
De La Roche 220 D 
COURSES TAUGHT
  • BIO 105. Biological Science I
  • BIO 106. Biological Science II
  • BIO 350. Neurobiology with laboratory
  • BIO 390. Evolution
  • BIO 399. Biology Seminar
  • BIO 456/457. Biology Senior/Faculty Colloquium
  • BIO 494. Genomics with bioinformatics laboratory
  • HON 299. Counterfactual Thinking
  • HSOC 401. Health and Society Seminar
ACADEMIC DEGREES
  • Ph.D., Stanford University
  • B.A., St. John's College
OTHER EDUCATION
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Notable publications

  • Russell PJ, Hertz PE, McMillan B, Benington, JH. Biology: The Dynamic Science, 5th edition. Cengage, 2021.
  • 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.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS/PROJECTS

My scholarly interests include the following:

  • In collaboration with Craig Heller at Stanford University, I have proposed hypotheses linking the function of sleep to brain energy metabolism, and linking the function of REM sleep to events taking place during nonREM sleep.
  • In collaboration with Marcos Frank at University of Pennsylvania, I have proposed a range of possible cellular and molecular connections between sleep and synaptic plasticity.
  • I am one author of a college general biology textbook for natural science majors, published by Cengage.

My past research in collaboration with students 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 in association with starvation-induced sexual reproduction in Tetrahymena thermophila and Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
  • bioinformatic analysis of changes in mouse long non-coding  RNAs in recovery from heart failure

Currently, I mentor students in bioinformatics projects, performing new analyses of publicly available data to answer diverse biological questions. 

PERSONAL INTERESTS/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
LINKS