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Nobel Prize Awarded for Biological Clock Discoveries | Quanta Magazine

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theme__text'> <section class='post__title__wrapper relative '> <section class='outer fill-h relative outer--content '> <div class='mha container--s'> <div class='header-spacer'></div> <div class='post__title pv1 scale1 mha'> <div class='scale0'> <div class='mb1 pb025 mt0 h6t post__title__kicker '> <a class="kicker theme__accent theme__text-hover uppercase" href="/abstractions/">Abstractions blog</a> </div> <h1 class='post__title__title mv025 noe theme__text' >Nobel Prize Awarded for Biological Clock Discoveries</h1> <div class='post__title__author-date h5 mt1'> <div class='byline relative flex flex-items-start merriweather mv025 mr1 gray3 h6t theme__text-hover'> <em class='byline__by gray4 mr075'>By </em> <span> <a href='https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/jordana-cepelewicz/'> <span class='byline__author small uppercase kern light'>Jordana Cepelewicz</span> </a> <span class='orange italic pointer' data-type='author' data-toggle-hover='tooltip' aria-expanded> +1 authors</span> <div class='q-tooltip hidden force-mobile-placement w-31 -top-8 ml-n14'> <div class='q-tooltip-content'> <div class='q-tooltip-arrow -bottom-3 left-1/2'></div> <div class='q-tooltip-inner py-1 pl-1' role='tooltip'> <div class='byline__tooltip__author color-transition relative mx025 h6t' data-toggle-hover='author'> <a class='uppercase kern--w merriweather theme__primary--hover transition--color' href='https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/john/'> <span class='small no-wrap'>John Rennie</span> </a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </span> </div> <p class="h6 mv1 pv025 o6"><em>October 2, 2017</em></p> </div> <div class='post__title__meta flex flex-wrap flex-items-start'> <div class='post__title__excerpt wysiwyg p italic mb1 mt025 pr2 o4 theme__text ' > Three U.S. biologists share the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research into the molecular mechanism that drives circadian rhythm. </div> <div class='post__title__actions h5 mt025 flex-auto flex flex-items-center'> <div class='comments-button 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srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Clock_lede1300.jpg 2600w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Clock_lede1300-520x304.jpg 520w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Clock_lede1300-1720x1004.jpg 1720w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Clock_lede1300-768x448.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 2600px) 100vw, 2600px" /> </div> </div> <figcaption class='block my-0 mx-auto w-full'> <section class='py-0 px-12 s:p-0 m:px-16'> <div class='w-full my-0 mx-auto flex flex-col s:mx-5 s:w-full-minus-25 s:max-w-mod-inline m:max-w-mod-inline l:flex-row l:max-w-mod-large justify-end s:mt-4 s:mb-4'> <div class='attribution theme__anchors--solid wysiwyg pangram h6 mb1 fill-h text-left w-auto before:block l:before:hidden l:w-half-minus-17 l:text-right l:pl-24'> <p><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/samritk">samritk</a></p> </div> </div> </section> </figcaption> </figure> <div class='acf-content scale1 mt2'> <h2 class='screen-reader-text'>Introduction</h2> <div class='post__wrapper scale0 show-dropcap'> <div class='mha container--m'> <div class='post__content relative flex flex-items-start flex-justify-between'> <aside class='post__sidebar hide flex flex-justify-center '> <div class='post__sidebar__content'> <div class='post__sidebar__content__inner'> <div class='post__sidebar__author-title relative hide--xs'> <div class='h6t mv0 fill-h pangram bold uppercase kern'> <small>Authors</small> </div> <hr class='absolute fit-l fit-b fit-r o1' /> </div> <div class='align-c mb075'> <a class='theme__accent-hover transition--color sidebar__author--list relative flex flex-items-start pv1' href='https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/jordana-cepelewicz/'> <div class='sidebar__author__avatar mha mr075'> <div class='image mx0 relative image--circle '> <div class='image__inner absolute fit-x is-loaded'> <img width="1500" height="1500" src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/QuantaTeam_Jordana-White-BG.jpg" class="absolute fit-x fill-h fill-v mxa" alt="Jordana Cepelwicz" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/QuantaTeam_Jordana-White-BG.jpg 1500w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/QuantaTeam_Jordana-White-BG-520x520.jpg 520w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/QuantaTeam_Jordana-White-BG-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/QuantaTeam_Jordana-White-BG-160x160.jpg 160w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class='flex-auto align-l'> <h5 class='sidebar__author__name mb0 mt0'>Jordana Cepelewicz</h5> <p class="o8 theme__text h6 mv025"><em>Math Editor</em></p> </div> </a> <a class='theme__accent-hover transition--color sidebar__author--list relative flex flex-items-start pv1' href='https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/john/'> <div class='sidebar__author__avatar mha mr075'> <div class='image mx0 relative image--circle '> <div class='image__inner absolute fit-x is-loaded'> <img width="600" height="600" src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/QuantaTeam_John.jpg" class="absolute fit-x fill-h fill-v mxa" alt="John Rennie" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/QuantaTeam_John.jpg 600w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/QuantaTeam_John-520x520.jpg 520w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/QuantaTeam_John-160x160.jpg 160w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class='flex-auto align-l'> <h5 class='sidebar__author__name mb0 mt0'>John Rennie</h5> <p class="o8 theme__text h6 mv025"><em>Deputy Editor</em></p> </div> </a> <hr class='mb075 o1'> <p class="h6 mv1 pv025 o6"><em>October 2, 2017</em></p> </div> <form 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class='post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline '> <p>Ninety minutes before dawn in the eastern United States, the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2017/press.html">Nobel committee announced</a> that it was awarding this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to three American biologists for their research on the control of circadian rhythms. <a href="http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/faculty/hall.html">Jeffrey C. Hall</a> at the University of Maine, <a href="http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/faculty/rosbash.html">Michael Rosbash</a> at Brandeis University and <a href="https://www.rockefeller.edu/our-scientists/heads-of-laboratories/914-michael-w-young/">Michael W. Young</a> at the Rockefeller University share the prize for their discoveries of the genetic and biomolecular mechanisms that help the cells of plants and animals (including humans) mark the 24-hour cycle of day and night. That research became a cornerstone of the science of chronobiology, the study of how organisms track time and adapt to its cycles.</p> <p>“It’s a really beautiful example of basic research that has led to incredible discoveries,” commented <a href="http://genetics.tamu.edu/faculty/paul_hardin">Paul Hardin</a>, who studies chronobiology at Texas A&amp;M University. “Almost every aspect of physiology and metabolism will be controlled by the circadian clock.” For example, in the case of mammals, he said, 20–30 percent of the genes in any given tissue may be under the control of an internal clock. “But if you take all the tissues of the body, the vast majority of genes are under clock control in one tissue or another.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.surrey.ac.uk/biochemical/People/69806/">Josephine Arendt</a>, an emeritus professor of endocrinology at Surrey University who studies circadian rhythms, agreed about the importance of the work winning this year’s prize. Health and fitness can be profoundly affected by disorders that throw off that 24-hour timekeeping mechanism or any of the neurological and hormonal systems that rely on it. “Their work underpins [that of] people like me who are interested in applying circadian principles to human health,” she said.</p> </div> </div> </div> </section> <aside class='post__sidebar hide flex flex-justify-center theme__anchors--solid '> <div class='post__sidebar__content'> <div class='post__sidebar__content__inner'> <div class='h3t mt0'> Share this article </div> <div data-id='social-links'> <div class='social-links social-links--share flex flex-justify-between'> <a href='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.quantamagazine.org/nobel-prize-awarded-for-biological-clock-discoveries-20171002/' class='social-links__link flex flex-items-center relative' target="_blank" > <div class='icon-button inline-block relative pointer theme__accent-hover-child'> <div class='absolute fit-x mxa o2 hover--opaque 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src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MichaelRosbash_526.jpg" class="mb-6 w-full s:mb-4" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MichaelRosbash_526.jpg 526w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MichaelRosbash_526-520x347.jpg 520w" sizes="(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px" /> </div> <div class='w-auto mr-2 last:mr-0 s:m-0 s:flex s:flex-col flex-1'> <img width="526" height="351" src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Michael-W-Young_526rv.jpg" class="mb-6 w-full s:mb-4" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Michael-W-Young_526rv.jpg 526w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Michael-W-Young_526rv-520x347.jpg 520w" sizes="(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px" /> </div> </div> <figcaption class='block my-0 mx-auto m:hidden l:hidden w-full'> <section class='py-0 px-12 s:p-0 m:px-16'> <div class='w-full my-0 mx-auto flex flex-col s:mx-5 s:w-full-minus-25 s:max-w-mod-inline m:max-w-mod-inline l:flex-row l:max-w-mod-large justify-center s:mb-8'> <div class='caption wysiwyg h5 theme__anchors--solid fill-h w-auto l:w-140'> <p>Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young (top to bottom) are new Nobel laureates in celebration of their discoveries about the genetic and biomolecular mechanism that governs the circadian rhythm.</p> </div> </div> </section> </figcaption> <figcaption class='block my-0 mx-auto s:hidden w-full'> <section class='py-0 px-12 s:p-0 m:px-16'> <div class='w-full my-0 mx-auto flex flex-col s:mx-5 s:w-full-minus-25 s:max-w-mod-inline m:max-w-mod-inline l:flex-row l:max-w-mod-large justify-end s:mb-4'> <div class='caption wysiwyg h5 theme__anchors--solid fill-h w-auto l:w-140'> <p>Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young (left to right) are new Nobel laureates in celebration of their discoveries about the genetic and biomolecular mechanism that governs the circadian rhythm.</p> </div> <div class='attribution theme__anchors--solid wysiwyg pangram h6 mb1 fill-h text-left w-auto before:block l:before:hidden l:w-half-minus-17 l:text-right l:pl-24'> <p>The Gairdner Foundation (Hall and Young); Mike Lovett/Brandeis University (Rosbash)</p> </div> </div> </section> </figcaption> </figure> <div class='acf-content scale1 mt2'> <section class='outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content'> <div class='flex-auto mha container--xs '> <div class='post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline' data-role='selectable'> <div class='post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline '> <p>The study of circadian rhythms goes back to at least the 18th century, when scientists noticed that certain plants would open their leaves at sunrise and close them at sunset even in the absence of lighting cues. Later evidence showed that essentially all organisms had some internal biological clock that allowed them to match their physiology to the day-night cycle. Work in the 1970s by Ronald Konopka and Seymour Benzer showed that this clock was under genetic control because mutations could disrupt it. The name <em>period</em> was given to that gene but little else was known about it. Indeed, how a gene could allow cells to keep time remained a mystery.</p> <aside class='post__aside mb2 relative theme__anchors--none post__aside--right hide-on-print abstract-insight'> <div class='abstractions insights'> <div class='relative image mx0'> <img width="520" height="520" src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Abstractions-520x520.png" class="block mxa is-loaded border-gray1 px1" alt="Abstractions logo" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Abstractions-520x520.png 520w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Abstractions-160x160.png 160w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px" /> </div> <div class='post__content wysiwyg pangram medium o8 theme__anchors--solid scale4 mt1 mb1'><em>Abstractions</em> navigates promising ideas in science and mathematics. Journey with us and join the conversation.</div> <div> <hr class='black o8'> <a href='/abstractions/'> <div class='theme__accent mv1 h4t'>See all Abstractions blog</div> </a> </div> </div> </aside> <p>Answers began to fall into place in 1984, when Hall and Rosbash working at Brandeis and Young at Rockefeller independently isolated the <em>period</em> gene in fruit flies. Hall and Rosbash showed that the cellular concentrations of the protein made by <em>period</em>, PER, were high during the day and then dropped at night, befitting a 24-hour timekeeping gene.</p> <p>The Brandeis researchers hypothesized that a feedback loop might be governing this gene-protein system: When concentrations of PER climbed high enough, they shut down the activity of <em>period</em>. When PER degraded, <em>period</em> could start up again. PER could thereby inhibit its own synthesis. The hitch in this scheme was that for it to work, something had to transport PER from the cell’s cytoplasm, where it was made, into the nucleus where <em>period</em> dwelled. Hall and Rosbash showed that PER was getting into the nucleus but it was unclear how until 1994, when Young discovered the <em>timeless</em> gene, which was also essential for proper circadian rhythms. The protein made by <em>timeless</em>, TIM, latches on to cytoplasmic PER and escorts it into the nucleus to inhibit <em>period</em>. Young later identified a third gene, <em>doubletime</em>, that also delays the build-up of PER in cells to further improve the linkage of this circadian mechanism to the time of day.</p> <figure class='mb2 mt1 image--shortcode s:mt-0'> <div class='relative image mx0'> <img width="1120" height="1064" src="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RhythmNobel_560.jpg" class="block fit-x fill-h fill-v is-loaded mxa large-print-img" alt="" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RhythmNobel_560.jpg 1120w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RhythmNobel_560-520x494.jpg 520w, https://www.quantamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RhythmNobel_560-768x730.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1120px) 100vw, 1120px" /> </div> <figcaption class='image__meta mt1'> <div class='attribution theme__anchors--solid wysiwyg pangram h6 mb1 fill-h post__aside__attribution'> <p>Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Quanta Magazine</p> </div> </figcaption> </figure> <p><a href="http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/andrew-millar(86879389-dd37-4d9d-886e-f549ed23f6ba).html">Andrew Millar</a>, the chair of systems biology at the University of Edinburgh and an expert on plant circadian rhythms, noted that the precise genetic clock mechanism that Hall, Rosbash and Young identified was specific to animals, but that conceptually similar mechanisms built around analogous genes were soon identified in plants, fungi, bacteria and other organisms by other researchers. “It’s the breadth of application of biological rhythm research that makes it so fascinating,” he said.</p> <div class="related-list"> <aside class="post__aside mb2 relative hide-on-print post__aside--right"> <h2 class="mv0 h5 bold uppercase kern">Related:</h2> <hr class="mt1 o2"> <ol class="post__aside__list theme__anchors--none pt05"> <li class="mv075 flex"> <h3 class="h5t mt0 mb025 medium"> <a class="theme__accent theme__text-hover" href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-circadian-clocks-differ-from-sleep-20170217/"> <span class="' . $span_class . '">How Circadian Clocks Differ From Sleep</span> </a> </h3> </li> <li class="mv075 flex"> <h3 class="h5t mt0 mb025 medium"> <a class="theme__accent theme__text-hover" href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/teeth-may-reveal-a-multi-day-biological-clock-20161213/"> <span class="' . $span_class . '">Teeth May Reveal a Multi-Day Biological Clock</span> </a> </h3> </li> <li class="mv075 flex"> <h3 class="h5t mt0 mb025 medium"> <a class="theme__accent theme__text-hover" href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-bodys-trillions-of-clocks-keep-time-20150915/"> <span class="' . $span_class . '">How the Body’s Trillions of Clocks Keep Time</span> </a> </h3> </li> </ol> </aside> </div> <p>Chronobiology is consequently a field in its early days. Researchers are still trying to fully understand the <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-circadian-clocks-differ-from-sleep-20170217/">connection between the circadian rhythm within cells and animals&#8217; need for sleep</a>. Not only do diverse organisms use a variety of mechanisms to maintain circadian rhythms and other temporal cycles, <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-bodys-trillions-of-clocks-keep-time-20150915/">some cells of the body may use specialized timekeeping systems</a> for specialized functions. <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/teeth-may-reveal-a-multi-day-biological-clock-20161213/">New biological rhythms</a> — and their influence on organisms — continue to be discovered. Nevertheless, the dissection of this circadian timekeeping system by these scientists already stands as a landmark achievement.</p> <p><em>This post was updated on October 2 with additional comments from chronobiology experts.</em></p> </div> </div> </div> </section> </div> <div class='pv2'></div> <div class='post__footer'> <div class='mha container--m'> <div class='flex flex-wrap flex-items-stretch'> <div class='post__footer__col fill-h pv2 flex flex-items-center flex-justify-center'> <section class='outer'> <aside class='post__sidebar hide flex flex-justify-center post__sidebar--footer'> <div class='post__sidebar__content'> <div class='post__sidebar__content__inner'> <div class='post__sidebar__author-title relative hide--xs'> <div class='h6t mv0 fill-h pangram bold uppercase kern'> <small>Authors</small> </div> <hr class='absolute fit-l fit-b fit-r o1' /> </div> <div class='align-c mb075'> <a class='theme__accent-hover transition--color sidebar__author--list relative flex 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