Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM)
Room 307
679 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854 Shen

(732) 235-5550
FAX: (732) 235-5318

edery@mbcl.rutgers.edu

Website

Daily fluctuations in biochemical, physiological and behavioral phenomena are governed by endogenous circadian (~24 hour) clocks that can be synchronized (entrained) by external time cues (zeitgebers), most notably the daily changes in light/dark and temperature. This adaptive feature of circadian clocks enables organisms to temporally align their physiology and behavior such that they occur at biologically advantageous times during the day. Malfunctions in the circadian timing system contribute to many human disorders, including chronic sleep problems and affective disorders, such as manic-depression. More recent evidence has indicated roles for circadian clocks in cancer, cell-cycle progression, alcoholism, long-term memory, mating, apoptosis and many signaling pathways.

The main goal of our laboratory is to understand the molecular and biochemical bases of circadian clocks or pacemakers. To achieve this goal, we are using the powerful genetics available in Drosophila in combination with biochemical, molecular, proteomic, cell culture, evolutionary, histochemical and whole-animal approaches. Much of the research is focused on characterizing "clock proteins" and understanding how they interact to form timekeeping devices that can be synchronized by external cues and impart time-of-day information to various cellular, physiological and behavioral programs. Recent interests include the role of time-dependent phosphorylation and its intersection with the proteasome pathway to produce daily fluctuations in clock protein levels, a key event in the normal progression of clocks. In addition, we are interested in understanding how the dynamics of circadian clocks are adjusted by seasonal changes in day length and temperature, a mechanism that enables organisms to manifest appropriate seasonal responses. For example, we showed that visible light and temperature regulate the splicing efficiency of a clock mRNA, an event that sets the phase of when flies are active during the day; e.g., at warm temperatures splicing efficiency is low leading to an increase in nocturnal activity, hence minimizing the deleterious affects associated with being active during the hot mid-day sun. An overriding theme of the lab is that we try to integrate molecular findings with real-life physiological relevance.

For complete list: PubMed

Majercak, J., Cheng, W.-F. and Edery, I. (2004). Splicing of the period gene 3’-terminal intron is regulated by light, circadian clock factors, and phospholipase C. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24: 3359-3372.

Akten, B., E. Jauch, G. K. Genova, E. Y. Kim, I. Edery, T. Raabe, F. R. Jackson. (2003). A role for CK2 in the Drosophila circadian oscillator. Nature Neurosci. 6: 251-257.

Kim, E.Y., Bae, K., Ng, F.S., Glossop, N.R.J., Hardin, P.E. and Edery, I. (2002). Drosophila CLOCK protein is under posttranscriptional control and influences light-induced activity. Neuron 34:69-81.

Ko, W.H., Jiang, J. and Edery, I. (2002). A role for Slimb in the degradation of Drosophila PERIOD protein phosphorylated by DOUBLETIME Nature 420:673-678.

Bae, K., Lee, C., Hardin, P.H., and Edery, I. (2000) dCLOCK is present in limiting amounts and likely mediates daily interactions between the dCLOCK-CYC transcription factor and the PER-TIM complex. J. Neuroscience 20: 1746-1753.

Edery, I. (2000) Circadian rhythms in a nutshell. Physiol. Genomics 3: 59-74.

Majercak, J., Sidote, D., Hardin, P.H. and Edery, I. (1999). How a circadian clock adapts to seasonal decreases in temperature and day length. Neuron 24:219-230.