Credit: Cincinnati Children’s Confocal Imaging Core
This enlarged image of a Drosophila fruit fly by Cincinnati Children’s scientists is part of research that uses the insect’s genetic makeup to model the secretes of human biology – such as the regulation of body temperature rhythms that are crucial to metabolism and sleep. In findings that one day may help people sleep better, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s and Kyoto University report in Genes & Development uncover the first molecular evidence that two anciently conversed proteins with shared biological ancestry regulate body temperature rhythms in insects and mammals.