Sarah Wurts Black

Sarah Wurts Black, Ph.D., is a research scientist at the Center for Neuroscience and Metabolic Diseases in SRI Biosciences. Her work focuses on the development of therapeutics for the treatment of narcolepsy and the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, particularly rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Narcolepsy is characterized by a loss of sleep/wake state boundary control, excessive daytime sleepiness, REM sleep abnormalities, and cataplexy—a sudden loss of muscle tone in response to emotional stimuli. Narcolepsy is caused by degeneration of cells in the brain that produce hypocretin (also known as orexin), which is a neuropeptide that promotes wakefulness.

Black's other research interests include the dysregulation of sleep and circadian rhythms in neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Black earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience under the auspices of the National Multi-Site Training Program for Basic Sleep Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. She conducted her doctoral dissertation research and a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Her doctoral work was acknowledged with a Young Investigator's Award from the Sleep Research Society.