Circadian Rhythms and Health

(NEU233)

Coordinator:

Dr. Paula Desplats
Associate Professor
Neurosciences, UC San Diego

Link to course flyer

This is a 10-week elective pre-clerkship course created to give medical, pharmacy, and Biology/Neuroscience graduate students knowledge about the role of circadian rhythms in health and provide them with the fundamental concepts to evaluate the impact of circadian alterations as human disease drivers.

Emerging evidence shows that circadian rhythms are negatively impacted by modern lifestyles that include shift-work, 24/7 access to food and services, and alterations in light exposure, sleep patterns and nutrition. The circadian clock regulates the expression of nearly 50% of the human transcriptome (in one tissue or another) and, thus, significantly affects physiology. Circadian biology modulates processes that impact disease risk, cognition and work performance, surgical outcomes, fertility and drug metabolism.