Circadian Rhythms

This book provides a comprehensive overview of circadian rhythms, from their molecular mechanisms to their emerging applications in precision medicine. Bringing together contributions from leading scientists across the different areas of circadian research and medicine, it explores how the biological clock regulates human physiology and how understanding, measuring and modelling circadian rhythms can be translated into strategies to improve health, disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The first part presents the molecular mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms and their interactions with other physiological systems, including the endocrine system. It introduces experimental approaches for assessing circadian rhythms as well as computational and mathematical methods for analysing and interpreting circadian data. The second part focuses on translational applications in human health, including personalized chronotherapy and diagnostics, sleep, women’s health and ageing. The third part examines the role of circadian disruption in disease and explores how circadian biology, computational modelling and pharmacology can be integrated to optimize the timing of therapeutic interventions, with applications in cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and space medicine. As circadian biology increasingly moves from fundamental research toward clinical translation, the book highlights the opportunities and challenges involved in integrating biological timing into personalized medicine. By bringing together fundamental biology, quantitative approaches and clinical translation, this volume provides researchers, clinicians and students with an interdisciplinary perspective on the rapidly developing field of circadian medicine and illustrates how understanding biological time can contribute to more personalized approaches to health, disease prevention and treatment.