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AnonTechie writes:

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to a trio of American scientists for their discoveries on the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms – in other words, the 24-hour body clock.

According to the Nobel committee's citation, £825,000 prize shared between American scientists Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young were recognised for their discoveries explaining "how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth's revolutions." All three winners are from the US. Hall, 72, has retired but spent the majority of his career at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachussetts, where fellow laureate Rosbash, 73, is still a faculty member. Young, 68, works at Rockefeller University in New York.

The team identified a gene within fruit flies that controls the creatures' daily rhythm, known as the "period" gene. This gene encodes a protein within the cell during the night which then degrades during the day.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/02/nobel-prize-for-medicine-awarded-for-insights-into-internal-biological-clock

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