Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Numerous aspects of physiology present 24-hour (or circadian) rhythms: sleep-wake cycles, feeding, hormones, body temperature, etc. These circadian rhythms allow the organism to adapt properly to cyclic variations of the environment (day-night cycles, seasons). Circadian rhythms are generated by "biological clocks", which are located in the brain as well as in various other organs. In recent years, many so-called "clock genes" have been discovered; these genes constitute the cogwheels of the biological clocks. The general objective of my research program is to understand exactly how these circadian clocks function and how they control physiology and behaviour. Recently, we found a new component of the biological clock, a protein called USP2. This protein seems to modify how other clock components work. Thus, this proposal describes the work of the next five years aiming at finding the exact role of USP2 within the biological clocks. More specifically, we wish to find out how USP2 works in concert with other gears of the biological clock, how it helps the clock to respond to environmental day-night cycles and how it allows various processes in cells to vary over the day. Overall the work described here will shed new light on important mechanisms that directly link molecular clocks with physiology and cell functions. Moreover, this research program will allow the training of many students with a diverse expertise in molecular biology, neuroscience and chronobiology.