What is Chronobiology?
Chronobiology is the biology of time, or the study of internal biological clocks. Biological clocks are found at all levels in living organisms. They range from oscillations found in nerve cells on the millisecond scale to oscillations in minutes, hours, days, and years in a variety of organisms and tissues. Although the commonly used phrase "your biological clock is ticking" relates to the window of years for becoming parents, many clocks are found in humans, such as the time to puberty, to menopause, and aging "clocks." Our research unit is focused on just one of these chronobiological phenomena: the daily or circadian clock.
The name circadian comes from the Latin circa, meaning "approximately," and diem or dies, "day;" thus, the word means "about one day." Examples of human health issues related to circadian rhythms—biological oscillations in activity that recur with a period of “about one day”—are the problems associated with jet lag and shift work, the depression of Seasonal Affective Disorder, and time-of-day differences in response to medications and treatments.
Medical Implications
The clinical and medical relevance of chronobiology and circadian systems continues to grow in importance in shaping medical treatment, guiding research, providing new targets for drug development, and yielding insight into the inter-relatedness of various disease processes and circadian rhythms. Click here to learn more.
Related Links
- Microbe World Podcast: Clocks For Life
- KPBS Radio Podcast: Studying The Biological Clock
- The Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR)
- Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR)
- Journal of Biological Rhythms
Community Highlights
The annual CCB International symposium, held on February 15-17, was once again a splendid success. We would like to announce and congratulate this year's poster prize winners: Most outstanding, Sammons, Patrick (UC Santa Cruz); our three best posters (alphabetically) Cohen, Susan (UCSD, Golden Lab), Noguchi, Takako (UCSD, Welsh lab), and Paddock, Mark (UCSD, Golden lab).
Community Highlights
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The annual CCB Fall Workshop on Biological Timing, held on Friday November 16, was once again a great success. Special kudos go to Shubhroz Gill for his presentation entitled "An evidence-driven approach to studying human feeding behaviors." He won the prize for best presentation, which will be a career-boosting invited speaker slot in our 2014 international symposium. |
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CCB Director Susan Golden was recently profiled in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Click 
Congratulations Susan! CCB postdoctoral researcher Susan Cohen was awarded a Fellowship from the American Cancer Society in support of her research project "Regulation of Polyploidy during the Cell and Circadian Cycles". Susan is a member of Susan Golden's Lab.Affiliations
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Many thanks to our generous sponsors of the 2013 Symposium
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