[3] She joined the lab of Kenneth D. Irvine to study intercellular signalling and regulation of tissue growth by morphogen gradients in drosophila.
[3] Under Young's mentorship, Rogulja began to explore circadian biology and the neural mechanisms regulating sleep in drosophila.
[4] In her first author paper published in Cell in 2005, Rogulja showed, for the first time, that the regulation of wing growth in Drosophila is governed by the morphogenic gradient of Decapentaplegic (DPP).
[6] They found that TARA interacts with CycA to promote sleep and that it acts through inhibiting Cdk1 in the arousal center of the fly brain.
[7] As the principal investigator of the Ragoluja Lab, Rogulja runs a research program with three main focuses: sleep, circadian biology, and motivation.
[8] In relation to this work, Rogulja explores how sensory information guides the circadian clock to drive specific behaviors at certain times of day.
[8] In 2016, Rogulja gave a TEDX Talk in Boston describing the importance of basic science research to understand fundamental mechanisms governing sleep and how our increased exposure to light and dysregulated sleep-wake schedules due to globalization and travel affect our biology.
[10] In 2016, Rogulja and her colleagues discovered the role of dopamine in reflecting the mating need state in males flies and driving the appropriate reproductive behaviors.
[10] Their circuit mapping exquisitely shows the way in which internal motivational states in drosophila can interact with sensory information and change behavioral output.