Undated portrait of Michael W. Young of The Rocfeller University, one of
the recipients of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
his research shedding light on the inner workings of the biological
clock taken in New York. PHOTO | AFP
US geneticists Jeffrey
C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the Nobel
Medicine Prize Monday for shedding light on the biological clock that
governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living things.
The
team's work revealed the role of genes in setting the "circadian clock"
which regulates sleep and eating patterns, hormones and body
temperature, the Nobel Assembly said.
"Their
discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their
biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth's
revolutions."
All life on Earth is tuned to the
rotation of our planet. Scientists have long known that living
organisms, including humans, have an internal timekeeper that helps them
anticipate and adapt to the rhythm of the day.
Hall,
72, Rosbash, 73, and Young, 68, "were able to peek inside our biological
clock and elucidate its inner workings," the Nobel jury said.
They identified genes that regulate the clock, and the mechanism by which light can synchronise it.
Rosbash told Swedish Radio he was rattled when the committee's call woke him from his sleep at 5:10am.
"I
was called on the landline next to my bed which never rings unless
someone has died or something of this magnitude happens," he recounted.
Causes jetlag
"I was restless, both literally and figuratively. My wife said: 'Please start to breathe'."
The
circadian clock is what causes jetlag — what happens when our internal
clock and external environment move out of sync as we change time zones.
It
also regulates sleep, which is critical for normal brain function.
Circadian dysfunction has been linked to depression, bipolar disorder,
cognitive function, memory formation and some neurological diseases.
Studies
have indicated that a chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and
circadian clock — irregular shift work for example — may be associated
with an increased risk for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic
disorders and inflammation.
Scientists are working
hard on methods to alter the rhythm of errant clocks as a means to
"improve human health," said the Nobel team.
Using the
fruit fly as a model organism, this year's laureates isolated a gene
that controls the daily biological rhythm, called the period gene.
"They
showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell
during the night and is then degraded during the day," the Nobel team
said.
"Subsequently they identified additional protein
components of this machinery, exposing the mechanism governing the
self-sustaining clockwork inside the cell."
The trio will share the prize sum of about $1.1 million.
"Just
about every facet of our body changes predictably over the course of
the day and night and these changes are driven by this internal timing
mechanism," Michael Hastings of the Medical Research Council Laboratory
of Molecular Biology in Cambridge told AFP.
"Every
dimension of our health, every dimension of our personality or reactions
to medicines, our reactions to disease are variable and are on the very
precise programme set by this internal body clock."
The
medicine prize is traditionally the first Nobel to be announced. On
Tuesday, the physics prize laureates will be revealed, followed by those
for chemistry on Wednesday.
The literature prize will
be announced on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday, and the economics
prize will wrap things up on October 9.
There are no
shortlists for the prizes and the committees are tightlipped ahead of
the announcements, sparking rampant speculation.
For
the literature prize, the Swedish Academy is expected to turn the page
on last year's surprise choice of US singer songwriter Bob Dylan, which
divided the literary world.
This year it is expected to
go for a more conservative pick, with the same names recurring in the
speculation as in previous years: Italy's Claudio Magris, Kenya's Ngugi
wa Thiong'o, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, Syrian poet Adonis, Philip
Roth and Don DeLillo of the US, Israel's Amos Oz and Haruki Murakami of
Japan.
Nuclear test
A newcomer dominating the rumour mill is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke.
As for the Nobel peace prize — the only Nobel to be awarded in Oslo — a total of 318 nominations have been submitted this year.
Last
year, it went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts
to bring peace to a country ravaged by a half-century of conflict.
Anti-nuclear
efforts could take the prize this year, some have suggested. Tensions
have escalated between Washington and Pyongyang after North Korea's
sixth nuclear test, and there is growing uncertainty over the Iran deal,
which US President Donald
President Trump has threatened to tear up.
Two
key orchestrators of that accord, Iranian Foreign minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif and EU Foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, are seen as
strong contenders by the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo,
Henrik Urdal.
Others believed to be on the list include
Syria's White Helmets rescue service, Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege,
jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and Edward Snowden, who revealed the
scope of America's NSA electronic surveillance programme.
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