KUOW features UW Radiology Assistant Professor

Swati Rane Levendovszky, Ph.D., was recently featured on KUOW for her research on sleep and the glymphatic system.

Dr. Rane Levendovszky, Director of the Diagnostic Imaging Sciences Center (DISC) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology, is working with Jeffrey Iliff, Ph.D., Associate Director for Research and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neurology.

As you sleep, your brain relaxes and lets the cerebrospinal and intersititial fluid wash through it, flushing away cellular waste that accumulates during the day. Dr. Rane Levendovszky designed an MRI scan to learn more about the glymphatic process for this research project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Also working with her on this project is Radiology Research Analyst Cole Anderson.

The researchers want to see if they can enhance this process during sleep – through medication, a device/headband or something different. This would be applicable to active duty personnel and our veteran populations, but the ultimate goal is to help all different types of people, she said.

“As a woman from India, somebody juggling her career while raising a five-year-old and has had many sleep-deprived nights in the process, I have special interest in understanding what is really happening with lack of sleep and can that be improved even in mothers,” Dr. Rane Levendovszky told KUOW.

Learn more about the study on the KUOW website.