A Snapshot seminar hosted by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience

Academic host: Chrissy Hammond

Circadian clocks are the evolutionarily conserved biological timers that exist in almost all cells of the body. Clocks in the brain and peripheral tissues temporally coordinate local physiology to align with the 24-hour rhythmic environment through light/darkness, rest/activity and feeding/fasting cycles. Circadian disruption (during ageing, shift work and jet lag) has been proposed as a risk factor for a range of human conditions and diseases, ranging from sleep disorders, adverse cardiovascular events, metabolic syndrome and even cancer.  In this seminar, I will first introduce the circadian biology:  discoveries of endogenous 24-hour rhythms and clock genes, as well as their biomedical relevance (chronotherapy).  I will then give a few examples of how we have been investigating circadian rhythms in health and disease of different tissue systems using mouse models and clinical samples. In the final part of my talk, I will also share some unpublished data on new time cues we are working on which hold the potential to be developed into therapeutic interventions for age-related diseases. 

Prof. Qing-jun Meng, University of Manchester - https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/qing-jun.meng.html

Join via Zoom: https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/4798119105?pwd=MlZRZEt6aWhQb0NYT2pXd3N5aVRvQT09