The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine was awarded for studies of circadian rhythms
In Stockholm announced the names of laureates of the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 2017. They were Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael young. The prize was awarded for “discoveries of the molecular mechanisms governing circadian rhythms”. Circadian rhythms are called cyclical fluctuations of the intensity of various biological processes associated with the change of day and night. This was reported in the Twitter of the Nobel prize.
Using fruit flies as a model organism and Nobel laureates this year have identified the genes that control the normal daily biological rhythm. They showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night, and then collapses by the day.
Then they found another important in this process, the protein, revealing thus the mechanism that controls self-sustaining “clock” within cells.
We now understand that the biological clock operates on the same principles in all multicellular organisms, including humans.
Jeffrey Hall was born in 1945 in new York. He defended his thesis in 1971 at the University of Washington in Seattle. The main topic of his research are neuroscience and behavior of Drosophila. In addition to studies of behavioral rhythms, he also studied sex differences in the nervous system of these insects.
Michael Rosbash was born in 1944 in Kansas city. He received a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of technology in 1970, a Scientific team under his leadership has identified the main genes involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms, including period genes, clock and cycle. The work was done during the study of mutant organisms with altered phenotype and subsequent determination of the origins of these gene.