Nobel Prize Medicine winners announced

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a trio of US scientists for their discoveries around the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm.

Jeffrey Hall and Michael Rosbash, at Brandeis University in Boston, and Michael Young at the Rockefeller University in New York, succeeded in isolating the period gene – already known to be associated with the circadian rhythm in fruit flies. Hall and Roshbash were then able to isolate the gene and show that it encodes a protein – PER – that accumulates in the cell overnight, which then degrades throughout the day.

It is now widely recognised that biological clocks function by the same principle in cells of other multicellular organisms, including humans. Our inner clock is able to adapt our physiology to different phases of the day and regulates functions such as behaviour, hormone levels, metabolism and sleep. Links have also been discovered revealing that misalignment between our lifestyle and circadian clock are associated with increased risks for a number of diseases.

Building on the work of Hall and Rosbash, in the 90s Young discovered a second clock gene, timeless. Just as period encodes the PER protein, timeless encodes the TIM protein, which is also required for a normal circadian rhythm. When PER binds to TIM, the two proteins are able to enter the cell nucleus, affecting the circadian feedback loop. Young also discovered another gene, doubletime¸ that delays the accumulation of the PER protein.

Jeffrey Hall and Michael Rosbash worked together at the Brandeis University in Waltham USA since 1974, although Hall has now retired. Michal Young has been working at the Rockefeller University in New York since 1978.