Neuroendocrine Clocks and Calendars

Fran Ebling is Professor of Neuroendocrinology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, and served as chair of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology (2006-10). His research interests are in biological clocks and seasonal timing, particularly as they apply to the regulation of food intake, energy expenditure and reproduction.  He graduated with a degree in Zoology from the University of Bristol, and caried out postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh with Gerald Lincoln establishing the role of melatonin in timing seasonal reproduction in Soay sheep. His post-doctoral studies at the University of Michigan (USA) with Douglas Foster investigated the role of photoperiod in timing puberty in sheep. He was then appointed as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge where his interest in circadian rhythmicity developed, working with Michael Hastings and Joe Herbert. Since 2000 he has been at the University of Nottingham, and served as Course Director for Neuroscience degrees.Hugh Piggins is Professor and Head of School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience at the University of Bristol He initially studied at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with a BSc in Psychology. Subsequently he worked as a research assistant in cognitive science before undertaking at PhD on behavioural effects of neuropeptides at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He then obtained fellowships from NSERC and MRC (Canada) to pursue post-doctoral studies on the neurobiology of circadian rhythms with Ben Rusak and Kazue Semba at McMaster and Dalhousie Universities. In 1996 he set up his own lab at King’s College London, and then moved to the University of Manchester in 1998 where he focused on the roles of neuropeptides in the brain’s master circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). He used electrophysiological, neuroanatomical, and behavioural approaches to dissect the functions of gastrin-releasing peptide and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in the suprachaismatic nucleus. His current research in Bristol seeks to investigate circadian clocks in other regions of the brain, and in peripheral tissues such as the heart.