Dr. Cesar Cabrera

How much do you know about your body's biological clock?

For many years we have known that living organisms, including humans, have an internal, biological clock that helps them anticipate and adapt to the regular rhythm of the day. But how does this clock actually work?

Medicine laureates Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings. After studying fruit flies, they isolated a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm. They showed that this gene codes for a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night, and is then degraded during the day. They then identified additional protein components, exposing the mechanism governing the self-sustaining clockwork machinery inside the cell. We now recognise that biological clocks of humans function by the same principles.

Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth’s revolutions. Our well-being is affected when there is a temporary mismatch between our external environment and this internal biological clock, for example when we experience jet lag.

For more on how we adapt our biological rhythm see: https://bit.ly/3BJOYIe