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Nobel In Medicine Awarded To 3 Scientists For Work On Circadian Rhythm

Three American researchers have been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in medicine “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm”, or the biological clock.

Nobel In Medicine Awarded To 3 Scientists For Work On Circadian Rhythm
The Nobel Prize Winning Scientists (from left) Dr. Rosbash, Dr. Young and Dr. Hall.

The 9 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million) award will shared by Jeffrey Hall of the University of Ma

ine, Michael Rosbash of Brandeis University in Massachusetts and Michael Young of Rockefeller University in New York.

Their work helped illuminate one of the central mysteries of human life: why we need sleep, and how it happens. They were given their award for understanding the mysteries of how life tracks time and changes itself according to the movement of the sun.

The researchers had isolated a gene in fruit flies that controls the daily biological rhythm. They were able to show how the gene encodes a protein that builds up in cells at night, but then degrades during the day. The researchers also identified other protein components involved in this process, highlighting the minute mechanisms governing the clockwork inside a cell. The winners have raised “awareness of the importance of a proper sleep hygiene” said Juleen Zierath of the Nobel academy.

In the 1980s, the three scientists isolated the “period gene,” which had been theorized to control the biological clock, or circadian rhythm, in fruit flies. Hall and Rosbash then discovered aprotein called PER that is encoded by the period gene and fluctuates over a 24-hour cycle. The researchers believed that this protein, which they called PER, somehow blocked the period gene during the day. As PER was broken down in daytime, the gene regained its function and worked again the next night, directing the synthesis of PER.

The entire system turned out to involve several other proteins needed to control the accumulation of PER. These include one that attaches to PER, helping to block the period gene, and another that slows the buildup of the protein.

Continuing to investigate this biological system over the years, the scientists went on to discover still other components, notably one that allows light to influence the 24-hour rhythm.

Nobel In Medicine Awarded To 3 Scientists For Work On Circadian Rhythm

Disruption to the normal circadian rhythms of humans has been linked to a range of mental health disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, memory formation and a range of neurological conditions. It can also lead to diseases such as cancer, metabolic disorders and inflammation. Understanding this had the potential to help improve the health of people whose sleep cycles are permanently disrupted, such as those who work shifts.

The paradigm-shifting discoveries by the laureates established key mechanisms for the biological clock,” the Nobel Assembly said in its prize statement.

Our wellbeing is affected when there is a temporary mismatch between our external environment and this internal biological clock, for example when we travel across several time zones and experience ‘jet lag,’” the statement said.

There are also indications that chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and the rhythm dictated by our inner time keeper is associated with increased risk for various diseases.

Last year the prize was won by Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist who unpicked the mechanisms by which the body break downs and recycles components of cells – a process that guards against various diseases, including cancer and diabetes.

In total, 107 Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine have been won by 211 scientists since 1901, with just 12 awarded to women. Nonetheless, it remains the science award with the highest such tally – so far the physics prize has only been awarded to two women: Marie Curie and Maria Goeppert Mayer.

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