#michael rosbash

American biologists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythm in organisms.

What is circadian rhythm and how does it affect life?

Organisms undergo cyclic variations over the 24 hour day, maintained by what is called the circadian rhythm. Circadian comes from the Latin words meaning “about” (circa) and “one day” (diem).

It is generally accepted that day and night play an important role in synchronizing the biochemistry of organisms and their daily activities. The circadian rhythm of humans is based around the day-night cycle. During daylight hours, hormones are built up and used.

Exposure to artificial lighting and light pollution during night hours – time meant to recuperate and rest before the daytime cycle starts again – can greatly affect the health of humans.

Circadian rhythm is one of two processes that regulate the timing of sleep and wake. It interacts with the homeostatic sleep system to promote wake during the “biological day” and promote sleep during the “biological night.” The homeostatic drive to sleep, Process S, increases with time spent awake, while the circadian drive, Process C, increases or decreases depending on the time of day.

Sleep disorders such as the delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD) and advanced sleep phase disorder (ASPD) are associated with circadian rhythms timed too late and too early.

Animal research has determined that the molecular machinery behind the circadian rhythm exists in each cell of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus (a small group of neurons in the brain). Studies in which SCN maintained in cell cultures still generated a 24 hour rhythm provide further evidence for this fact, though outside light is necessary for the resetting of the rhythm to keep the organism in sync with the solar day.

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young “for their research into what controls circadian rhythms”.

Oxford University Press is proud to publish Nobel Prize winners, including Michael Rosbash, who coauthored “Age-Related Reduction of Recovery Sleep and Arousal Threshold in Drosophila”:

“Sleep is important for health and wellness. Human sleep changes with age, for example sleep quantity and quality, but there is little understanding of the cause. In this paper we monitored sleep in several strains of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which is a model organism for many aspects of human biology. Compared to young flies, older flies have more fragmented sleep (more awakening), reduced total sleep, a lower arousal threshold (easier to wake up), and fail to recover as much sleep after sleep deprivation. The effects of aging in flies are almost identical to those in humans, making Drosophila attractive for future genetic and mechanistic studies on aging and sleep.”

Congratulations to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young!

Asaltaron a investigador en la Ciudad Universitaria de Buenos Aires

Al último ganador del Premio Nobel de Medicina, Michael Rosbash, lo atracaron dos motorizados en las adyacencias de Ciudad Universitaria de Buenos Aires.

Al estadounidense Michael Rosbash, de 74 años, lo abordaron dos delincuentes cuando se bajaba de su auto. El especialista se disponía a ingresar al Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Allí fue invitado para recibir un…

Motochorros asaltaron a un premio Nobel que llegó al País a dar una charla.

 Se trata del premio Nobel de Medicina 2017, el estadounidense Michael Rosbash. Llegó al país para dar una charla en la UBA. Junto a un docente de esa universidad fueron abordados por motochorros.

(more…)

Dass Zeit mit Uhren in feste, äquivalente Einheiten unterteilt und gemessen wird und dadurch unser gesamtes Leben beherrscht, war nicht immer so und ist auch nicht selbstverständlich. 

Source: Time (STOCKHOLM) — An American researcher who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine bluntly criticized political developments at home in his address at the awards’ gala banquet Sunday night. Michael Rosbash, who was honored for his work on circadian rhythms — commonly called the body clock — expressed concern that U.S. government support such as that received by him and colleagues…

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/us-nobel-laureate-worries-politics-undermine-science/50098/

US Nobel laureate worries politics could undermine science

STOCKHOLM/December 10, 2017 (AP)(STL.NEWS) — An American researcher who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine bluntly criticized political developments at home in his address at the awards’ gala banquet Sunday night.

Michael Rosbash, who was honored for his work on circadian rhythms — commonly called the body clock — expressed concern that U.S. government support such as that received by him and colleagues Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young is endangered.

“We benefited from an enlightened period in the postwar United States. Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research … (but) the current climate in the U.S. is a warning that continued support cannot be taken for granted,” he said in a short speech at the ornate city hall in Stockholm.

The 2018 federal budget proposed by President Donald Trump calls for cutting science funding by billions of dollars

“Also in danger is the pluralistic America into which all three of us of born were born and raised after World War II,” Rosbash said. “Immigrants and foreigners have always been an indispensable part of our country, including its great record in scientific research.”

Literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro of Britain expressed concern about increasing tensions between social factions.

“We live today in a time of growing tribal enmities of communities fracturing into bitterly opposed groups,” said Ishiguro, who was born in Japan.

He said Nobel prizes can counterbalance such animosity.

“The pride we feel when someone from our nation wins a Nobel prize is different from the one we feel witnessing one of our athletes winning an Olympic medal. We don’t feel the pride of our tribe demonstrating superiority over other tribes. Rather it’s the pride that from knowing that one of us has made a significant contribution to our common human endeavor,” he said.

In the Norwegian capital of Oslo, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima compared her struggle to survive in 1945 to the objectives of the group awarded this year’s Nobel’s Peace Prize.

Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 when the U.S. bomb devastated her Japanese city during the final weeks of World War II, spoke as a leading activist with the Nobel-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Thurlow said the Hiroshima blast left her buried under the rubble, but she was able to see light and crawl to safety.

In the same way, the campaign to which she belongs is a driving force behind an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons, she said after ICAN received the Nobel prize it won in October.

“Our light now is the ban treaty,” Thurlow said. “I repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima: ‘Don’t give up. Keep pushing. See the light? Crawl toward it.'”

The treaty has been signed by 56 countries — none of them nuclear powers — and ratified by only three. To become binding it requires ratification by 50 countries.

ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn, who accepted the prize along with Thurlow, said that while the treaty is far from ratification “now, at long last, we have an unequivocal norm against nuclear weapons.”

“This is the way forward. There is only one way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons — prohibit and eliminate them,” Fihn said.

The prize winners were announced in October. All except the peace prize were awarded in Sweden on Sunday.

The other laureates were American Richard Thaler for his work in behavioral economics; American physicists Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish for confirming the existence of gravity waves; and Jacques Dubochet of

Switzerland, American Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson of the United Kingdom for advances in electron microscopy.

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New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/us-nobel-laureate-worries-politics-undermine-science/50098/

US Nobel laureate worries politics could undermine science

STOCKHOLM/December 10, 2017 (AP)(STL.NEWS) — An American researcher who shared this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine bluntly criticized political developments at home in his address at the awards’ gala banquet Sunday night.

Michael Rosbash, who was honored for his work on circadian rhythms — commonly called the body clock — expressed concern that U.S. government support such as that received by him and colleagues Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young is endangered.

“We benefited from an enlightened period in the postwar United States. Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research … (but) the current climate in the U.S. is a warning that continued support cannot be taken for granted,” he said in a short speech at the ornate city hall in Stockholm.

The 2018 federal budget proposed by President Donald Trump calls for cutting science funding by billions of dollars

“Also in danger is the pluralistic America into which all three of us of born were born and raised after World War II,” Rosbash said. “Immigrants and foreigners have always been an indispensable part of our country, including its great record in scientific research.”

Literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro of Britain expressed concern about increasing tensions between social factions.

“We live today in a time of growing tribal enmities of communities fracturing into bitterly opposed groups,” said Ishiguro, who was born in Japan.

He said Nobel prizes can counterbalance such animosity.

“The pride we feel when someone from our nation wins a Nobel prize is different from the one we feel witnessing one of our athletes winning an Olympic medal. We don’t feel the pride of our tribe demonstrating superiority over other tribes. Rather it’s the pride that from knowing that one of us has made a significant contribution to our common human endeavor,” he said.

In the Norwegian capital of Oslo, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima compared her struggle to survive in 1945 to the objectives of the group awarded this year’s Nobel’s Peace Prize.

Setsuko Thurlow, who was 13 when the U.S. bomb devastated her Japanese city during the final weeks of World War II, spoke as a leading activist with the Nobel-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Thurlow said the Hiroshima blast left her buried under the rubble, but she was able to see light and crawl to safety.

In the same way, the campaign to which she belongs is a driving force behind an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons, she said after ICAN received the Nobel prize it won in October.

“Our light now is the ban treaty,” Thurlow said. “I repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima: ‘Don’t give up. Keep pushing. See the light? Crawl toward it.'”

The treaty has been signed by 56 countries — none of them nuclear powers — and ratified by only three. To become binding it requires ratification by 50 countries.

ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn, who accepted the prize along with Thurlow, said that while the treaty is far from ratification “now, at long last, we have an unequivocal norm against nuclear weapons.”

“This is the way forward. There is only one way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons — prohibit and eliminate them,” Fihn said.

The prize winners were announced in October. All except the peace prize were awarded in Sweden on Sunday.

The other laureates were American Richard Thaler for his work in behavioral economics; American physicists Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish for confirming the existence of gravity waves; and Jacques Dubochet of

Switzerland, American Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson of the United Kingdom for advances in electron microscopy.

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