New Molecule Can Reset Your Biological Clock With Unprecedented Effectiveness
Longdaysin For Long Nights via Flickr/ glasgowsCould be a cure for jet lag A genetic research robot has helped scientists discover a new molecule, dubbed "longdaysin," that has potent effects on the biological clock, potentially leading to new treatments for jet lag and a suite of sleep disorders. The new compound lengthened the biological clocks of larval zebrafish by more than 10 hours, scientists say. To find the drug, researchers led by Tsuyoshi Hirota attached luciferase genes to some human bone cancer cells so the cells glowed in response to changes in the cell's circadian rhythms. Then a genetic research robot screened more than 120,000 potential molecular compounds to see which ones had an effect on those rhythms. The robot singled out the most promising compounds for further study. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego isolated longdaysin, and a separate team at the Scripps Research Institute figured out that three...