Connor S Qiu, Imperial College London, London, UK

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.111.20

5–6 December 2018, Barbican, London, UK

Sleep and circadian rhythms are essential elements of physiology that govern life in ways we are only beginning to uncover. These topics are gaining increasing recognition as key research avenues amongst the array of physiological processes that occur in our bodies. The field received a deserved boost in recognition when the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for pioneering work on the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. The increasing relevance of translating the importance of sleep and circadian rhythms to the public realm has inspired the founding of movements such as SleepImperial (sleepimperial.com).

Our conference this December intends to promote and highlight the current trends and major research directions occurring globally in the sleep field. To give a snapshot of what to expect at this conference, we put the spotlight on three outstanding researchers that are speaking, and provide a whirlwind tour of their life’s work.

Think about the continuum between sleep and wakefulness for a moment. An interesting and useful question to consider is what controls their relative levels in humans. Chiara Cirelli at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has done exactly this in her research about why we sleep. In her recent Science paper (de Vivo et al., 2017) she has assessed synaptic strengthening and weakening during learning by measuring nearly 7000 synapses in mouse motor and sensory cortices using three-dimensional electron microscopy. This amazingly detailed work supports the idea that synapses are recalibrated during sleep to enable synaptic strengthening and brain plasticity during wakefulness. This notion was first proposed with her long-time collaborator, Giulio Tononi, and together they pioneered the ‘synaptic homeostasis hypotheses’, which Chiara will discuss during her talk.
Sleep and wakefulness operates under approximately a 24-hour cycle, our body clock, which has adapted in our bodies over time with evolution. The light that enables us to see has profound effects on this body clock. Russell Foster leads a research group that discovered the photoreceptors in the retina that relay this information to our body clock. Russell, based at the University of Oxford, is known to The Physiological Society for his public lectures in 2011 and 2013. He’s also given a TED talk, ‘Why we sleep’ (which can be found at ted.com). By receiving this information, our body is able to acclimatise to changing environments by changing the settings of our default body clock. These synchronisations have far-reaching consequences on our performance, productivity and health. He now runs the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) group at Oxford University, and we are delighted he will be joining us to discuss his latest research.

In addition to studying ‘normal’ sleep, there is a vast field of research looking at disordered sleep. Narcolepsy, for example, is a medical condition that causes individuals to fall asleep suddenly and without warning throughout the day, and currently has no cure. This condition can have profound effects on emotional wellbeing and quality of life. Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University is credited with discovering the cause of narcolepsy. The neuronal signalling molecule hypocretin (or orexin), which has wide-ranging effects on wakefulness, arousal and appetite, is found to be lacking in the brains of individuals diagnosed with narcolepsy. Emmanuel and colleagues were able to isolate mutations in the hypocretin receptor 2 that cause canine narcolepsy (Lin et al., 1999). Parallel work on the east coast also showed that hypocretin deficient mice also have narcolepsy (Chemelli et al., 1999). This ground-breaking work has led to many developments in the genetics of sleep disorders, and we are delighted that Emmanuel will be joining us to discuss these at the meeting.

The conference has an outstanding programme of speakers and seminars aimed at elucidating the exciting science and wider societal implications of sleep and circadian rhythms. It will satisfy your intellectual appetite and help further your research. We hope you are as excited as we are about the programme, which you can view online at the link at the top of this article.

We look forward to warmly welcoming you to ‘Sleep and Circadian Rhythms from Mechanisms to Function’ at the world-class arts and learning centre, the Barbican in London from 5 to 6 December 2018.