Krishna is interested in understanding how brains generate adaptive behaviours. To get at these questions, his lab uses a variety of techniques including genetics, circuit tracing tools, physiology and behavioural measurements. His current interests are in studying sleep in the fly Drosophila. His work speaks to two aspects of sleep – that sleep is plastic i.e. modifiable by environmental changes, and in turn supports brain plasticity and learning. In so doing, his work addresses fundamental questions around both the how and why of sleep. Prior to joining Ashoka, Krishna was a Staff Scientist in the Dept of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine studying sleep in the fly Drosophila with Dr. Paul Shaw. He received a PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst studying neural development with Dr. John Nambu. From development, he went on to first investigate the neural substrates for colour vision at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, before finding his true intellectual home in the study of sleep in flies.