Program highlights

  • Poster presentation throughout the event to get feedback
  • Ten lectures from world-renowned chronobiologists
  • Two experiment courses in chronobiology of your choice
  • Networking opportunities with other trainees

Schedule

August 5 (Monday)

13:00 – 14:00

Arrival and Registration

14:00 – 15:30

Orientation + Data Blitz + Poster presentation

15:30 – 17:00

Lecture #1
Bill Schwartz (UT Austin, US)
Welcome to Chronobiology!  Let’s Begin with a Brief Review of Some Fundamentals Along with Personal Reflections

17:15 – 18:45

Lecture #2
Ken-ichi Honma (Hokkaido University, Japan)
Human Chronobiology

18:45

Welcome reception (location TBD)

August 6 (Tuesday)

9:00 – 10:30

Lecture #3
Xiaodong Xu (Henan University, China)
Plant Circadian Clock: Entrainment, Core Oscillators, and Environmental Fitness

10:45 – 12:15

Lecture #4
Hang Wang (Soochow University, China)
Zebrafish Circadian Clocks—What We Have Known So Far

12:15 – 13:00

Lunch

13:00 – 14:30

Lecture #5
David Virshup (Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore)
Regulation of Circadian Rhythms by Protein Phosphorylation

15:00 – 18:00

Experimental Course #1 (see course details below)

18:00

Dinner on your own


August 7 (Wednesday)

9:00 – 10:30

Lecture #6
Shuji Akiyama (National Institute of Molecular Science, Japan)
Cross-Scale Causality in the Cyanobacterial Circadian Clock System

10:45 – 12:15

Lecture #7
Roelof Hut (University of Groningen, Netherland)
The Flexible Clock system: adaptive in nature, but maladaptive in modern society?

12:15 – 13:00

Lunch

13:15 – 14:30

Lecture #8
Jennifer Evans (Marquette University, US)
The SCN after 50 years: Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

15:00 – 18:00

Experimental Course #2 (see course details below)

18:00

Dinner on your own


August 8 (Thursday)

9:00 – 10:30

Lecture #9
Sato Honma (Sapporo Hanazono Hospital, Japan)
Sleep and Sleep Disorders

10:45 – 12:15

Lecture #10
Joseph Takahashi (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
Mechanism of the Circadian Clock in Mammals: From CentiMorgans to Angstroms and From Days to Lifespans

12:15 – 13:00

Lunch

13:00

Departure

Experimental course options:

  • In vitro Reconstitution of the Cyanobacteria Circadian Clock (Ito-Miwa, Nishiwaki-Ohkawa)
    • Participants will learn how to reconstitute the cyanobacterial circadian clock from purified KaiABC proteins.
  • Interaction assay by Bimolecular-Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) Analysis for Clock-Related Proteins in the Moss Physcomitrium patens (Aoki)
    • Participants will learn: 1) how to introduce exogenous DNA molecules into protonema cells of the moss Physcomitrium patens by the particle bombardment method, and 2) how to observe intracellular localization and interaction of clock-related proteins in the cells by the BiFC analysis.
  • Experimental Determination of the Critical Day-Length of a Short-Day Flowering Duckweed (Muranaka)
    • Participants will learn how to analyze the natural variation of the photoperiodic response of plants.
  • Arabidopsis course (Nakamichi, Yamashino)
    • Brief introduction of circadian clock and output pathways in plants
    • Analyses of circadian rhythm and clock-output organ elongation in Arabidopsis
  • Drosophila course (Tomita)
    • Brief introduction of Drosophila genetics
    • Basic handling of Drosophila
    • Circadian rhythm and sleep study using Drosophila
  • Analysis of Circadian Locomotor Activity Rhythms in Zebrafish Larvae (Nakayama)
    • Participants will learn how to record circadian rhythms in zebrafish larvae.
  • Analysis of Mammalian Circadian Rhythms Using U2OS Cells (Hirota, Kon)
    • Participants will learn how to record the circadian rhythms of human U2OS cells in 384- well plates and analyze the effect of chemical compounds.
  • Slice Preparation of the Mouse Brain (Ono)
    • Participants will learn how to prepare mouse brain slices and dissect out the SCN and other nuclei.