Akhilesh B. Reddy
Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist
Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Research Interests
I am interested in circadian rhythms, which are daily cycles of physiology and behaviour that persist when organisms are isolated from the outside world. They represent a fundamental biological mechanism, and are present at all levels of life, from bacteria through to humans. They allow us to anticipate and thus adapt to the solar cycle of night and day.
In humans, the sleep-wake cycle is the most obvious circadian rhythm but other, more subtle, endocrine rhythms coordinate our body's physiology. Disruption of our circadian programming through old age, neurological disease, and even shift-work, is a growing cause of significant morbidity. Of note, disorders of metabolism, as well as cancer, have now been closely linked to circadian dysfunction.
The genes responsible for running our clockwork have been identified recently. I am using systems biological approaches, including microarrays, various proteomics tools as well as genome-wide transcription factor analyses to deconstruct how the brain's clock in the hypothalamus is able to control a vast array of physiological processes, including the sleep-wake cycle, endocrine rhythms, appetite and various metabolic processes.
I am funded by the Wellcome Trust, ERC and EMBO.
Selected Publications
Reddy AB, O'Neil JS. (2011). Metaclocks. EMBO Rep, 12(7):612. doi: 10.1038/embor.2011.123. PMID: 21720447. PMCID: PMC3128962.
O'Neil JS, Reddy AB. (2011). Circadian clocks in human red blood cells. Nature, 469:498-503. PMID: 21270888. PMCID: PMC3040566.
O'Neil JS, van Ooijen G, Dixon LE, Troein C, Corellou F, Bouget FY, Reddy AB*, Millar AJ*. (2011). Circadian rhythms persist without transcription in eukaryote. Nature, 469:554-558. PMID: 21270895. PMCID: PMC3040569.
Maywood ES, Fraenkel E, McAllister CJ, Wood N, Reddy AB, Hastings MH, Morton AJ. (2010). Disruption of peripheral circadian timekeeping in a mouse model of Huntingdon's disease and its restoration by temporally scheduled feeding. J Neurosci, 30(30):10199-204. PMID: 20668203.
Reddy AB, O'Neill JS. (2010). Healthy clocks, healthy body, healthy mind.
Trends Cell Biol, 20(1):36-44. PMID: 19926479. PMCID: PMC2808409.
Deery MJ, Maywood ES, Chesham JE, Sládek M, Karp NA, Green EW, Charles PD, Reddy AB, Kyriacou CP, Lilley KS, Hastings MH. (2009). Proteomic analysis reveals the role of synaptic vesicle cycling in sustaining the suprachiasmatic circadian clock. Curr Biol, 19(23):2031-6. PMID: 19913422.