Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young are the US – born scientists who won Nobel Prize 2017 for Physiology or Medicine for their phenomenal discoveries in molecular mechanisms that control our biological clocks. This has been confirmed by the award – giving body.

The process helped to explain various issues like why people travelling long distances via several time zones often suffer jet lag and they have wider association with health such as increased risk for certain diseases. The Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said that the findings explained how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is connected with the Earth’s revolutions. The three scientists used fruit flies to separate a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm and showed the process of gene encoding a protein that accumulates in the cell during night time and degrades at day time. 

The assembly said that the clock regulates critical functions like behavior, hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism while awarding the prize of 9 million Swedish crowns.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: Hindustan Times