Binnen het BioClock consortium willen we onderzoek gaan doen naar hoe kennis van de biologische klok kan worden ingezet voor een gezondere en veerkrachtigere samenleving. Door middel van het matchmaking event willen we vragen die spelen binnen de samenleving omtrent de biologische klok identificeren, de samenwerking tussen verschillende partijen versterken, en de commitment van nieuwe partijen bevorderen.

The timing of light exposure, physical activity, and food intake are important cues for synchronising the biological clock. Disruption of the biological clock is a clear threat to both public health and vulnerable ecosystems. Especially in a highly industrialised country such as The Netherlands there is a mismatch between biological clocks and social demands. However, these cues have drastically – and abruptly - changed in our modern society due to the widespread use of artificial light and the round-the-clock demand for goods and services. Fundamental research has shown that precisely these conditions cause desynchrony among clock cells.

The biological clock of diurnal and nocturnal animals both display activity of neurons during the day while at night the neurons are inactive. Nevertheless, nocturnal and diurnal animals are differetly. In our studies we show that this may be partly due to a difference in light input. We found that light has a large influence on the clock of nocturnal animals stimulating the neurons to be active. In diurnal animals the opposite happens and light represses neurons. Besides, diurnal animal use different neurotransmitters during the transmission of light signals to the clock.