Researcher Profile: Dr. Kazue Semba
Dr. Kazue Semba is a Professor in the Department of Medical Neuroscience with cross appointments in Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology & Neuroscience at Dalhousie University.
Dr. Semba has been a member of the Brain Repair Centre (BRC) since its foundation and values the role it plays in Dalhousie’s neuroscience community. “It’s a wonderful place of collaboration. It links people together in many ways, such as offering seminars, helping with research funding, and promoting our research profile on national and international stages,” she says.
Dr. Semba’s research focuses on the neurobiology of sleep. Utilizing rodents, she studies circadian rhythms and how the brain regulates sleep. One current focus is to find out the role of astrocytes (a group of non-neuronal brain cells) in synaptic plasticity involved in sleep homeostasis. Working at her lab every day, her goal is to spend 50% of her time on research, talking to students about their work and reading papers to stay informed of research in her field and beyond. The other half of her days is spent teaching, assisting with the graduate program, attending committee meetings, and reviewing manuscripts.
Students play a large role in Dr. Semba’s research, “I’ve been very fortunate to work with many wonderful students and I’ve learned from them all,” says Semba. “I want students to love their work, and tell them that research requires patience, and not everything works. When you find the solution and it works, it’s invigorating.”
To date, for over thirty years, Dr. Semba’s work has been funded through research grants from CIHR and NSERC, and occasionally also by DMRF and private foundations. Most of her research is fundamental, and has provided opportunities to partner with others, including cardiac physiologists and researchers in psychiatry and pharmacology. She also collaborates with neuroscientists from other Canadian universities and in Japan. Dr. Semba has published in top tier journals and she would like to continue renewing grants, attracting more students, and writing key publications.
Dr. Semba has helped the Department of Medical Neuroscience to receive funding from the BRC for a symposium to celebrate the launch of the new graduate program, but due to the pandemic it had to be postponed. She is hoping that they are soon able to start planning it again by inviting speakers to come together to learn from each other and get back to making meaningful connections that best happen in person.
Alongside her work as a sleep researcher, Dr. Semba is a violinist and founding member of the Edward Street Quartet, showing a love and passion for playing music. Perhaps we will soon be privileged to hear her quartet at a wedding, reception or garden party? One has to wonder whether Dr. Kazue has thought about playing a lullaby on her violin in any of her research endeavours!