Clocks in Model Organisms: Circadian Networks, Physiology and Health

Biological rhythms infiltrate every aspect of an organism’s behavior and physiology, with circadian, 24 hour endogenous cycles representing the dominant temporal phenotype for most animals and plants, including some bacteria. Their importance was reflected in the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology to Hall, Rosbash and Young for their pioneering genetic and molecular dissection of the Drosophila circadian clock. Over the past century, changes in working and lighting environments have invaded the natural sleep-wake cycles of humans with resulting disruption of their health and well-being, leading for example to increased levels of sleep disorders, physiological, cellular, metabolic and even mental dysfunction. The GRC Chronobiology meeting with its associated GRS will bring together the world’s leading experts and younger researchers to discuss recent, unpublished advances in this field in a number of diverse model organisms. The invited speakers will present their work encompassing a broad range of biological levels, from modelling biological rhythms to their molecular and cellular regulation, and their impact on developmental, physiological, and behavioral phenotypes. Particular emphasis will be placed on the translation of this basic laboratory research to the workplace and the clinic, hence the subtheme "Clocks in Model Organisms: Circadian Networks, Physiology and Health".