Circadian rhythm and clock genes : winding down the clock in ageing

在这个轮换中，学生将加入一个最近建立的跨学科项目，该项目一直在使用小鼠模型研究昼夜节律如何随年龄变化。昼夜节律控制着一系列随着年龄增长而下降的生理和行为过程，如活动、睡眠、饮食和记忆。该项目的总体目标是研究昼夜节律如何随着年龄的增长而变化，最终是否可以确定一种生物机制，将健康的昼夜节律延长到老年。学生将学习如何使用计算机监控系统在数周内测量家鼠笼的活动，分析不同环境条件下的活动模式，并学习如何使用统计学方法分析它们的数据集。该学生将使用从小鼠大脑中提取的RNA来研究参与昼夜周期调节的基因的表达，例如Per1、Per2、CLOCK、Bmal1等，并研究这些基因是否与检测到的任何行为变化有关。这将提供在体内技能，动物行为，统计学，数据库处理，一般分子实验室技能，包括RNA提取和定量PCR的培训。

In this rotation the student will join a recently established interdisciplinary project that has been investigating how circadian rhythms change with age using mouse models. Circadian rhythms control a wide range of physiological and behavioural processes that decline with age such as activity, sleep, eating and memory. The overall aim of this project is to examine how circadian rhythms alter with age and ultimately whether a biological mechanism can be identified to prolong healthy circadian rhythms into old age. The student will learn how to use computerised monitoring systems to measure home cage activity of mice over several weeks, analyse these activity patterns under different environmental conditions and learn how to analyse their datasets using statistics. The student will use RNA extracted from mouse brain to investigate expression of genes involved in regulation of the circadian cycle for e.g. Per1, Per2, CLOCK, Bmal1 etc. and investigate whether these are associated with any behavioural changes detected. This will provide training in in vivo skills, animal behaviour, statistics, database handling, general molecular laboratory skills including RNA extraction and quantitative PCR.