UNN biologists on the Nobel Prize award in the field of physiology and medicine

On October 2, the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. The scientists' discovery allows us to understand how plants and animals, as well as humans, adapt their biological rhythms, synchronizing them with the rotation of the Earth. 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.

According to V.A. Vodeneev, Doctor of Sciences (Biology), Head of the UNN Biophysics Department, circadian (diurnal) rhythms have a great influence on the activity of biological processes. Thus, in particular, photosynthesis, a key process in plants, depends on the time of day. The regulation of this process is being extensively studied at the UNN Institute of Biology and Biomedicine.

"When planning experiments on animals, as well as when working with humans, it is very important to observe circadian rhythms, since they determine the activity of all body systems and ultimately affect the reliability of the experimental data obtained", adds Doctor of Sciences (Biology), Director of the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine M.V. Vednova. In the study of complex cognitive processes and neurodegenerative diseases, which are investigated at Lobachevsky University, it is very important to observe individual circadian rhythms of the body — it is the necessary condition for obtaining an adequate model of a pathological process and finding the right methods for treatment.