Ongoing
Jennifer Hurley
Humans, like many organisms, are able to correctly perceive the time of day without knowing the position of the sun. This perception of time is created by circadian rhythms, which allow an organism to organize their physiology and behavior such that appropriate activities occur at biologically advantageous times. The disruption of these circadian rhythms leads to a reduction in longevity, reproductive fitness, and contributes to disease pathogenesis. The goals of the Hurley lab are to understand how molecularly an organism keeps time and how the disruption of our circadian rhythms affects our biology using state-of-the-art molecular, biochemical, and computational techniques.