NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSIOLOGY/MEDICINE 2017

NOBEL PRIZE-PHYSIOLOGY/MEDICINE

• Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young was awarde for Nobel prize for physiology/Medicine 2017  for heir discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm    
• Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth's revolutions.
  
• Using fruit flies as a model organism, this year's Nobel laureates isolated a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm.
•  They showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night, and is then degraded during the day.
• Subsequently, they identified additional protein components of this machinery, exposing the mechanism governing the self-sustaining clockwork inside the cell. 
• We now recognize that biological clocks function by the same principles in cells of other multi cellular organisms, including humans.
  

• With exquisite precision, our inner clock adapts our physiology to the dramatically different phases of the day. 
• The clock regulates critical functions such as behavior, hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism.
•  Our well being is affected when there is a temporary mismatch between our external environment and this internal biological clock
• There are also indications that chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and the rhythm dictated by our inner timekeeper is associated with increased risk for various diseases. 
• The biological clock is involved in many aspects of our complex physiology.
•  A large proportion of our genes are regulated by the biological clock and, consequently, a carefully calibrated circadian rhythm adapts our physiology to the different phases of the day
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