Dr. Jon Jacklet is doing research on biological rhythms at the cellular and molecular levels. He is asking fundamental questions about neural circadian pacemakers: How do specific genes contribute to the pacemaker? What is the function of the "period" gene product? How is circadian clock information transmitted to the central nervous system, to the contralateral paired ocular pacemaker? What transmitters are used? How does efferent innervation modulate the pacemaker? These questions are being addressed by appropriate experimental approaches and testing specific hypotheses using the circadian pacemaker neurons found in the eyes of invertebrate species (Aplysia and Bulla). Dr. Jacklet uses in vitro organ culture in which the circadian rhythms are expressed very clearly for experimental purposes. This work is important for the fundamental understanding of how the body takes in light-dark (visual) cycle information and codes it for ever changing body functions.//
