Michael Rosbash Quotes

United States, Geneticist
March 7, 1944

Michael Morris Rosbash is an American geneticist and chronobiologist. Rosbash is a professor at Brandeis University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Rosbash's research group cloned the Drosophila period gene in 1984 and proposed the Transcription Translation Negative Feedback Loop for circadian clocks in 1990. In 1998, they discovered the cycle gene, clock gene, and cryptochrome photoreceptor in Drosophila through the use of forward genetics, by first identifying the phenotype of a mutant and then determining the genetics behind the mutation. Rosbash was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. Along with Michael W. Young and Jeffrey C. Hall, he was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".

The circadian neurons are one of the few circuits in neurobiology where we have a chance to understand at multiple levels how different sets of neurons communicate with each other - including understanding the wiring rules, the biochemical rules, and the functional behavioral rules.

Michael Rosbash
Shift work, where the body clock is continuously changed, is really deleterious on many levels - from psychology to physiology.

Michael Rosbash

I won't start quite at the beginning... but the emigration of my parents from Nazi Germany and their new life in the U.S.A. A one sentence summary of these events is that after some years of trouble and considerable hard work, my parents established a satisfactory if not comfortable life for themselves and their two children.

Michael Rosbash
This is the western world; if somebody can make a buck, they're going to try to do it.

Michael Rosbash
- World
- Western
- Somebody
We benefited from an enlightened post-war period in the United States: Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research.

Michael Rosbash
- Period
- Research
- National
It's been overlooked for a long time as a real public health problem. All of western society is a little bit sleep-deprived, and when I say a little bit, I mean chronically.

Michael Rosbash
- Society
- Health
- Problem
Most important for the circadian field was the pioneering work of Ron Konopka in Seymour's lab.

Michael Rosbash
The same biological clock ticks away in humans and fruit flies, which underscores the importance of circadian timing to life on this planet.

Michael Rosbash
- Planet
- Importance
- Timing

Scientific careers rely on inheritance, environment, and random events, like all biological phenomena.

Michael Rosbash
I don't drink alcohol too late in the evening; I read a good book.

Michael Rosbash
- Read
- Alcohol
- Late
I stand on the shoulders of giants.

Michael Rosbash
- Giants
- Shoulders
Immigrants and foreigners have always been an indispensable part of our country, including its great record in scientific research.

Michael Rosbash
I try not to take sleep medication.

Michael Rosbash
- Medication
It was always intriguing that flies had two peaks of activity, in the morning and evening, with a siesta during the day and not very much activity at night. There are several ways to explain that, but one possibility was that there were two clocks running - one governing the morning peak and one governing the evening peak.

Michael Rosbash