I enjoyed your presentation. I’m wondering about the sleep cycles of flies compared to humans. Are they similar?

Hello Anne,
Thanks for your interest! Flies have very well defined rhythms in sleep and activity and this is very similar to humans. This is the primary reason that makes flies a good model to study biological clocks.
Regards, Kuntol

Great job, Kuntol! Now is there anything you can do with this model to increase longevity?

Hello Carolyn,
Thank you! We are currently trying genetic and other therapeutic approaches as an attempt to rejuvenate the dampened circadian oscillations during aging. We want to investigate if stronger clock oscillations could lead to longer lifespan, better healthspan (fitness parameters) and reduced neurodegeneration.
Best regards, Kuntol

Very nice job Kuntol. I wonder if you can get the flies to meditate.

Thanks Jeff! We have never tried getting the flies to meditate. Not sure if we could do that! But, we can definitely adjust their sleeping patterns to various light:dark regimes. Best, Kuntol

Great job! I enjoyed your video and this is a very interesting topic. Have you considered the health impacts to people with a chronic circadian rhythm sleep disorder, such as non-24 hour syndrome? If not, do you think people with these types of disorders are in danger of health problems due to having an inaccurate internal body clock or due to constantly trying to alter their sleep schedules to agree with a typical 24 hour day? I realize this is probably slightly-off topic but I thought it would be interesting to see your opinion.

Thank you for your kind words Margery! Indeed multiple studies in humans and rodent models with chronic circadian disorders are prone to cancer, premature aging, and a variety of other pathological diseases. This includes shift-workers, pilots, nurses etc who have their clocks dysregulated due to their work environment. However such findings are of correlative nature and therefore we want to investigate the underlying mechanisms. Regards, Kuntol