The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is proud to announce the nineteenth Royal Academy Nobel Laureate Lecture.

Professor Michael Rosbash on the lecture:

The last 35 years has seen a sea change in the field of circadian rhythms. This modern era began with work in Drosophila (fruit flies), which has been a leading genetic system for more than 100 years. My colleagues and I discovered the clock mechanism that underlies circadian timing, and it turned out that the genes and mechanism are conserved in all animals. This circadian system governs a large fraction of all gene expression, once again extending from fruit flies to humans, which explains why so much animal physiology (biochemistry, metabolism, endocrinology, behavior, sleep, etc.) is under temporal control. The broad reach of circadian biology indicates that it will continue to be important to many aspects of human well-being and will become increasingly relevant to medicine as more knowledge and applications accrue. Time permitting, I will also touch on the role of the Drosophila brain clock in controlling sleep and locomotor behavior, which remains a central focus of my current lab.