Rhythms are regularly recurring sequences of events, actions, or processes.

Biological rhythms are rhythms in biological phenomena.

Circadian rhythms are biological rhythms that meet certain criteria:

1. They are innate (unlearned), endogenous (generated from within), and near-24 hours in period.
2. They are entrainable to environmental rhythms.
3. They are temperature compensated.

Research in the Tackenberg Lab focuses on several questions about circadian rhythms:

Phase

How does the molecular clock generate outputs with various phases?

Period

How is the period of the molecular clock set?

Coupling

How is phase communicated between cells and tissues?

Methods

How can we analyze circadian data better?

Current projects

Optogenetic manipulation of circadian transcription

We’re working to implement recently-developed optogenetic transcription systems to regulate circadian gene expression with high temporal precision.

The impact of time-restricted feeding on within- and between-organ circadian coupling

Time-restricted feeding can boost metabolic health, but how? We’re investigating how time-restricted feeding impacts the cell-by-cell and organ-by-organ circadian timing of the body, and whether artificial changes to that timing can confer the same benefits.

Tissue-specificity in circadian gene expression

The core circadian clock is similar in all mammalian cells, yet those cells can maintain circadian rhythms with distinct period lengths and phases relative to one another. We’re working to determine how tissue-specific circadian gene expression contributes to that variety in phase and period.

How conflicting timing cues are interpreted by honey bees

We’re collaborating with Dr. Clare Rittschof from the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology to determine how honey bees integrate day length and temperature cues.

The circadian behavior of different pine sawfly species

In collaboration with Dr. Catherine Linnen, we’re looking at how different species of pine sawflies organize their activity in light/dark and constant conditions.

Whether circadian reporter traces hold clues to period regulation mechanisms

Circadian biologists often use the PERIOD 2::LUCIFERASE (PER2::LUC) fusion reporter line to track clock gene and protein expression over time in living tissue. We’re investigating whether subtle changes in waveform shape hold information about underlying period regulation mechanisms.