SEMINAR: Rhythms of body temperature and health

Bio: Shane did his PhD at the University of New South Wales on thermal biology of the emu, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in the Brain Function Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he focussed on brain temperature regulation in mammals. Since 1999 he has been at the University of Western Australia where his research centres on environmental physiology in man and other animals, with a focus on heat balance, energy use, and the mechanisms of thermoregulation. A special interest is adaptation to extremes, including life in the desert and arid zones, and what climate change will mean for thermoregulation in mammals, including man. His current research investigates animals, with a focus on heat balance, energy use, and the mechanisms of thermoregulation. A special interest is adaptation to extremes, including life in the desert and arid zones, and what climate change will mean for thermoregulation in mammals, including man. His current research investigates adaptations to heat and cold, and the impacts of circadian and ultradian changes in body temperature on health and performance. For three years he was the Head of the School of Anatomy, Physiology, and Human Biology, and then the inaugural Head of The School of Human Sciences for two years. He is very much enjoying more time now for research.

Abstract: The body clock, or circadian clock, keeps our body processes running according to a schedule. The molecular clock is well-known to entrain to light signals in the eye (but not from the photoreceptors in the retina), and emerging evidence suggests that it also interacts with our body temperature. Shane will discuss the factors that affect body temperature, such as heat and cold, malnutrition, and pregnancy, and what he has learned about temperature as a ‘zeitgeber’ (or time-giver) for our internal clock. He and his team have experimented with manipulating body temperature in mammals, and he will describe the challenges of this work, and why they ended up working on fruit flies. The team is now working to understand the daily ‘noise’ around the circadian rhythm and the new world of ultradian rhythms (two to three hourly changes).