Student Hosted Colloquium: Professor Carrie Partch, University of California, Santa Cruz
About the Seminar
The days of our lives—building a molecular approach to study and enhance circadian rhythms
Our lives are intimately linked to Earth’s 24-hour solar cycle via circadian clocks that coordinate physiology and behavior into rhythms that coincide with the day/night cycle. We are integrating structural biology, biochemistry, and cell biology to identify how dedicated clock proteins interact with one another to establish a deeper understanding of the molecular clock that underlies human circadian rhythms. Here, I’ll discuss how inherited alleles alter the human circadian clock to influence sleep timing and some new chemical biology approaches to control our clocks.
About the Speaker
Carrie earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry (with a minor in Italian) from the University of Washington in 1997. She conducted research at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR before attending graduate school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She worked with Nobel Laureate Aziz Sancar to study circadian rhythms and the blue light sensor Cryptochrome in bacteria, plants, and animals, earning her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2006. She then trained in structural biology techniques with Kevin Gardner and Joe Takahashi at UT Southwestern Medical Center , working to understand the circadian transcription factor, CLOCK:BMAL1. Since 2011, her lab at UC Santa Cruz has focused on dissecting the molecular steps that generate circadian rhythms from humans to bacteria. Work from her group has been recognized with several awards, including the 2016 Junior Faculty Award from the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, the 2018 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, and most recently, the 2022 Award in Molecular Biology from the US National Academy of Sciences.