Whole Blood Transcriptome Sequencing in Individuals with Insomnia

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify a transcriptomic profile of individuals with insomnia and explore the role of the glymphatic system and sleep disturbances in neurodegenerative disease and traumatic brain injury. The first paper reports whole blood transcriptomic analysis in individuals with insomnia using RNA sequencing technology. The study incorporated innovative high throughput sequencing platform with extended pathway analysis using QIAGEN’s Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis software to identify differentially expressed genes and pathways in individuals with insomnia. The second paper provides a critical review of the sleep-wake process and the glymphatic system and how these processes contribute to neurodegenerative disorders and traumatic brain injury. The research addresses an important gap in knowledge about underlying mechanism of insomnia and how sleep disturbance, the glymphatic pathway and neurologic conditions may be interrelated.