Where: Bldg 20 Auditorium
Description
Internal biological mechanisms, called circadian clocks, control the timing of a host of biological functions in organisms from fruit flies to humans. Studies of the molecular basis for this circadian rhythmicity began in the early 1980s in Young’s lab at Rockefeller, and in the labs of Jeffrey C. Hall and Michael Rosbash at Brandeis University. Over the past 40 years, in studies focused on the fruit fly Drosophila, these investigators learned that circadian clocks are formed in response to the actions of a small group of proteins that oscillate and drive cycling patterns of gene activity throughout the body. The genes and proteins composing Drosophila's circadian clocks are largely conserved in humans. Recent work in Young’s laboratory has identified a prevalent human sleep disorder that is caused by a mutation that alters the human circadian clock.
About the speaker
Michael Young is an American geneticist who contributed to the discovery of molecular mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythm, the 24 hours of biological activity in humans, and other organisms. He was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
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Michael Young
Michael Young is an American geneticist who contributed to the discovery of molecular mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythm, the 24-hour period of biological activity in humans, and other organisms. He was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Young received his PhD in genetics in 1975 from UT Austin. Following a postdoc in biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine, he was appointed assistant professor at Rockefeller University. He was named professor and later, he was appointed the university’s vice president for academic affairs and Richard & Jeanne Fisher Professor.
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