Dr. Fu's research aims to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system regulating sleep quality/efficiency and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological diseases (and probably many others) for all people. Quality sleep is a fundamental necessity for maintaining health and critical for optimal cognitive functioning. Although we have known this for a long time, we have little understanding of how the quality and quantity of sleep are regulated. She has used short sleep mouse models and Alzheimer-like disease mouse models to demonstrate that these short sleep mutations offer protective effects against the development and the progression of AD-like pathology. This finding has the revolutionary implication that quality sleep can help prevent many diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Fu's research aims to understand how sleep quality is regulated and thus know how quality sleep can be obtained. The results from this research program will have long-lasting beneficial effects on human healthy longevity.