The 2017 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded on Monday morning to Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young for their discoveries of the molecular underpinnings of the circadian rhythms that help organisms adapt to our 24-hour days.
The scientists “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, who announced the prize in Stockholm. “Their discoveries explain how plants, animals, and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions.”
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the understanding of a well synchronized biological clock might be the key of our health and wellbeing
on a serious note, does this biological clock show any difference due to food availability in the environment, lenght of day in the extreme like 6 months of night, temperature of the day and night, social and cultural rituals and health of the individual and the behavior of the natural predators, like animal or human, of the individual. I do congratulate the reasearchers on their prize and their good work. Now the work can start on what the trigger for the change is.
STAT’s scorecard for Nobel prize nominees: BOMBED OUT! BIGGLY!
good thing I did not invested in statnews! :-O
This research has not been lost on pharma, for example certain chemotherapies are best administered at certain times of the day. Working with researchers at Medical College of Virginia, about 15 years ago my company launched a novel formulation of propranolol called Innopran XL. The drug attacks the problem of the early morning rise in blood pressure that is associated with stroke and heart attack. Innopran XL is a delayed release formulation, which when administered at bedtime begins releasing the drug 4-5 hours later, with propranol concentrations peaking in late morning, thereby attenuating the circadian rise in BP associated with the above complications.
And there you go some idiot introduced daylight saving.