Prof. Gad Asher

Circadian rhythmicity is pervasive among all light-sensitive organisms, from cyanobacteria, through plants, flies to humans and is largely controlled by an endogenous clock. As earth completes each rotation every 24 hours, an endogenous circadian clock enables organisms to anticipate and adapt to daily environmental changes. Diurnal rhythms in behaviour, physiology and metabolism have been studied for centuries, but only recently a major leap has been made in our understanding of these rhythmic processes and the mechanisms that control them.

In essence, the mammalian circadian timing system consists of a central pacemaker in the brain that synchronizes subsidiary oscillators in virtually all cells of the body. All these oscillators share a similar molecular makeup and are maintained through interconnected transcriptional-translational feedback loops of core clock genes. While the brain’s master clock is entrained by daily light-dark cycles, other time signals (i.e., feeding time, oxygen, temperature) serve as timing cue for peripheral clocks in a tissue specific manner and are derailed under pathological conditions.

Compelling evidence points toward a tight intertwining between circadian rhythms and metabolism. Circadian clocks play a major role in orchestrating daily metabolism and their disruption can lead to metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Concomitantly, clocks are tightly coupled to cellular metabolism and respond to metabolic signals. Our overarching goal is to study the interplay between circadian clocks and metabolism in health and disease.