Medical Research

What are your research interests?

My laboratory focuses on the brain pathways that are involved in motivated behaviours and stress. We study the basic wiring of circuits controlling the activity of specific cell types in the brain region called the hypothalamus and other nodes of the brain reward-seeking pathway. 

We arim to dissect the maladaptive rewiring that occurs in the brain that can manifest as addictions, obesity and mood disorders. Research projects in my group centre around two major themes:

1. Understanding the hypothalamic circuit remodelling that occurs in response to physical, chemical or emotional challenges 
2. Determining the cellular and molecular basis for why some individuals are more prone to pathologies of motivational state, such as addiction or stress, than others.

Why did you get into research?

I was initially motivated by highly engaging teachers at school and university. My primary motivation is to better understand how the brain is rewired by adverse experiences so that we can intervene and correct these deleterious changes.

What would be the ultimate goal for your research?

I aim to establish a world class brain research centre in the Hunter, to make a major contribution to the understanding of brain pathways controlling pathological motivation states that leads to better treatments for neuropsychiatric diseases. 

We undertake basic ‘discovery’ research that aims to understand pathological altered brain function in the context of mental illness. We use cutting edge functional and genetic techniques to study how nerve cells communicate and how this communication can be corrupted by stress and addictive subtances. We work closely with other members of the Preclinical Neurobiology Group with whom we collaborating on many projects and share technical and intellectual expertise. Our ultimate vision is to harness these strengths and build a Hunter-based Research Centre – The Resilient Brain Initiative - with the goal of discovering the factors that underlie declining brain function and develop strategies to slow, stop, or reverse it.

Biography

Professor Dayas' lab is interested in how physiological challenges, such as simulated infection, or psychological challenges, such as perceived/anticipatory threats excite brain cells above the pituitary gland to provoke stress hormone release. They aim to determine how chronic stress exposure can trigger the expression of pathological motivational states such as depression, anxiety and addictions.

During Professor Dayas' post-doctoral work at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA he gained expertise in animal models of reward seeking behaviour. This work identified a critical role for the orexin (hypocretin) neurons in the lateral hypothalamus (LH) in promoting rewarding seeking behaviour precipitated by alcohol-linked environmental cues.

Since returning to Australia in 2007/8, Professor Dayas' lab has produced evidence that the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) is a key site through which hypothalamic peptide systems regulate reward seeking. These observations have triggered significant interest in the role of the PVT in motivated behaviour and how natural brain reward-seeking circuitry can be corrupted by chronic exposure to potent chemical rewards such as drugs of abuse e.g. cocaine or alcohol.

More recently Professor Dayas has begun to address key questions in the field such as what are the underlying biological differences in the brains of individuals that are vulnerable to the development of addictions to those that are not. His lab is addressing these questions by combining behavioural experiments with cutting edge neuroscience techniques such as optogenetics, designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug (DREADD), electrophysiology and NextGen sequencing. Professor Dayas' lab works closely with Professor Brett Graham, Associate Professor Douglas Smith and A/Prof Murray Cairns’ laboratory at HMRI and the University of Newcastle. His lab also has strong international links with current projects involving collaborations with the University of Nagoya (Japan), Hotchkiss Brain Institute (Calgary, Canada) and Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.

Specialised / Technical Skills

• Behavioural models of addictive disorders, stress, anxiety and depression
• Optogenetics
• DREADD

Affiliations

• University of Newcastle, Assistant Dean Research and Innovation