Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

A new perspective on chronobiologyThe discovery was particularly exciting because it was thefi rst time that these genes had been found in organisms thatare lower on the evolutionary ladder than drosophila. ‘Thesame components that you find in humans, you find inthis very early basal evolutionary group,’ Dr Levy reportsenthusiastically. ‘I think from this perspective this is amazing.I also think that this gives researchers working with modelanimals like drosophila or zebrafi sh a different perspective onchronobiology and the evolution of the circadian clock. Even forour community, the coral reef community or the people workingwith other cnidarians, we start seeing how it all fi ts together,how genes are expressed and how they affect the physiology,behaviour and the biology of these animals.’Unfortunately, scientifi c problems are rarely as simple as that:the mass spawning is very likely triggered by a far more complexseries of signals and processes. Hence, the cryptochromes areonly one piece in the puzzle. Dr Levy and three PhDs underhis supervision at Bar-Ilan University are attempting to unravelmore of the underwater mystery. ‘We have started investigatingmore in order to fi nd the other components of the circadianclock chain,’ Dr Levy says. ‘Because corals have a symbioticrelationship with the algae inside them, we are studying thealgae’s circadian mechanism as well as that of the coral itself.’And the lines of communication between Israel and Australiaestablished during the Marie Curie Fellowship remain open:Dr Levy’s PhDs might be able to benefi t from his link with leadingcoral expert Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg in Brisbane andmay get a chance to do some more fi eldwork on the GreatBarrier Reef.The need to communicateCommunication on the BCR project, however, has not beenrestricted to the scientifi c world and the network of experts.First published in Science, the subject was soon picked up bymajor non-scientifi c media like the New York Times which, inturn, attracted the attention of other newspapers in Israel andelsewhere, as well as that of the general public. Dr Levy jumpedat the chance to talk about his research – a natural reactionfrom his point of view, although he acknowledges that somescientists fi nd it hard to describe their research to the general226