Interviews with Participants

microphone
At the annual CCB Symposium, BioClock Studio Students have the opportunity to conduct short, informal "polling" interviews with participants, to get a feel for why circadian biologists from all over the world come to the Symposium. A selection of responses is provided below.

Participants at the CCB Symposium

  • Chelsea Gustafson

    Chelsea Gustafson

    UC Santa Cruz - Partch Lab

    Q: What is the importance of conferences like the CCB Symposium: why not just attend a "webinar?"

    A: The deeper I get into my research, the more I value conferences. At first, I felt like "Oh, can't I just read papers?" But papers are really dense, and complicated, and sometimes it's hard to understand what the salient points are, especially in this field where I'm interested in learning about the biology even though I'm not a biologist, so it's really wonderful to interact with people who study the same pathways as I do, but from such a different level and so it's great to hear what they think is important about thait research. And also, put a face with a name.

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: I come from a background of drug discoveries.  I worked in the industry for five years, so I am really… intrigued with how human health can be positively affected through lifestyle changes and also therapeutic intervention… by taking the circadian clock into account.

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: I think the most exciting thing is completely out of my realm of study: it just blows my mind how evolution occurs and how we evolved as species alongside all the other species, mammals and honeybees and cyanobacteria, to all respond to our environment in this world that has a 24-h cycle. It’s so incredible to see that, and a beautiful process.

  • Benjamin Smarr

    Benjamin Smarr

    UC Berkeley - Kriegsfeld Lab

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: This field is still young... so as more and more other groups, be they clinicians, biologists, the public, start to realize that circadian biolgy is not a niche field... it's on a near exponential increase. We still know very, very little about temporal organization in biology, and as a result, everything you touch turns to gold once you say "Hey, there's probably a time-of-day effect for that."... We didn't know that just a couple of years ago, right? But that's the really beautiful thing about this moment in time... To be part of it is a real thrill.

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: It gives you a great deal of hope that through something fairly simple - thinking about time mattering - you can effect enormous amounts of quality of life for enormous numbers of people... I can go to anybody that has any profession: "What do you do?" "Oh, I'm a circadian biologist." "What's that?" Five minutes in, we're talking about their work, but we're reframing it as a temporal question. They're excited, I'm excited, we're both learning new things, and anywhere I go, this works, because there's nobody who lives outside of time.

  • Hanne Hoffman

    Hanne Hoffman

    UC San Diego - Mellon Lab

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: That the public realizes at some point how important circadian rhythms and good sleep patterns are, and also that... the people who do shift work, that they get more informed about how bad shift work is... So I hope that our research will reach the public at some point in order to, you know, advance public health and health in general.

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: It regulates everything. Yeah, it’s a pain in the butt to study! [Laughing] Because you have to take so many time points!

  • Takato Imaizumi

    Takato Imaizumi

    University of Washington - Department of Biology

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: It's really interesting to see that some people tackle these kinds of big questions from a different point of view and at different levels...

  • Joanna Chiu

    Joanna Chiu

    UC Davis - Department of Entomology & Nematology

    Q: What is the importance of conferences like the CCB Symposium: why not just attend a "webinar?"

    A: It allows you the opportunity to meet with young scientists, and hear about their aspirations and what they want to do in the future. I like talking to you guys and telling you that it’s not scary at all. I think sometimes, younger people tend to get worried about their future before they should worry about it. So I think my conversation with them is always just more encouraging: "Don’t worry about the future, just enjoy what you’re doing right now and everything will be ok."

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: I guess my hope is for chronobiologists to maybe expand more beyond just improving human health, maybe controlling insect factors, like mosquitos... and also in sustainable agriculture. That's one of the things that is a key mission of UC Davis... I think agriculture needs chronobiologists.

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: You're not limited to just one thing, or a very narrow field! This is a field that allows you to actually expand when your interest changes, and so I think that's the one thing that is really attractive to me.

  • Ronald Walter

    Ronald Walter

    Texas State University - Department of Biology

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: Oh, just that people recognize that it's huge. I'm coming into this from the back door, from a DNA damage/cancer background, and I've run into circadian genes in those systems. The more I learn, the more I'm thinking "My Lord, why didn't I know about this before?" It's huge, it's a master regulator for the entire body, I just can't imagine how I missed it. 

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: What's not been done: there's so much that hasn't been done.

  • Carrie Partch

    Carrie Partch

    UC Santa Cruz - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

    Q: What are your favorite sessions at the CCB Symposium, and why?

    A: I love all of them because I actually enjoy the sessions that are more outside our expertise... that’s why I love circadian biology, because it expands. We do biochemistry and structural biology, and it expands into sleep and mood regulation, so actually I like discussions that don’t match up with what we do.

    Q: What made you decide to come to this year's CCB Symposium?

    A: I want to have some fun! Yeah!... We wanted to share some data, we wanted to network, and have some fun.

    Q: What do you see as the next big step for the advancement of circadian biology?

    A: I feel like it's advancing at record speed, as more and more disciplines that are tangential to circadian biology realize the impact of time on their systems. And so, right now, my goal is to continue reaching out, to see the field reach out to other areas of physiology and just try to follow it as best I can. It's so fast!

  • David Welsh

    David Welsh

    UC San Diego - Department of Psychiatry

    Q: What is the importance of conferences like the CCB Symposium: why not just attend a "webinar?"

    A: Most things on the internet, you only find what you’re looking for. You miss those kind of serendipities, accidental encounters [that occur] in person, and I think that’s very important. The things that are often proven most valuable are the things you don’t know you need, or you don’t know you’re looking for, and if you’re doing something on the internet, you’re there because you’re looking for it.

    Q: What is the most exciting thing about circadian biology?

    A: I think there’s a real aesthetic beauty to the oscillations that you see, and the fact that it happens across all different scales... in cyanobacteria you can see the reactions occurring in a test tube! Even in mammals, you can see 24-h oscillations in single cells, and you can take that all the way up to whole organisms and populations, and it’s the same basic phenomenon, and when you’re sitting down and analyzing the data, there’s this beauty of the rhythmicity, and there’s also the beauty of going across many different scales, and being able to study it in all those levels. It’s as small as DNA and as big as the world.

Participants at the Workshop on Sleep, Health & Work Schedules

  • Assistant Chief Sarah Creighton

    Assistant Chief Sarah Creighton

    Assistant Chief, San Diego Police Department

    Q: Where does your interest in the Workshop on Sleep come from?

    A: I'm hoping to be able to come back to my agency with some recommendations, you know, even on basic sleep hygiene, that might help officers and dispatchers who work around the clock and are constantly switching their schedules around.

  • J.B. Robinson

    J.B. Robinson

    VA Hospital, San Diego

    Q: Where does your interest in the Workshop on Sleep come from?

    A: I have a baby, a thirteen-month-old, and so sleep is an issue for my wife and I. [And] because my wife is a nurse, she works with colleagues who do shift work... So I saw the conferences on shift work and sleep, and I've struggled to treat people with sleep problems who are on shift work... I thought this would be a very good fit.