and more stable blood sugar and insulin levels. Participants
used an app developed by the lab and available to anyone at
www.MyCircadianClock.org to help track the timing of their
food intake, sleep and exercise.
“We have found that combining time-restricted eating with
medications can give metabolic syndrome patients the ability
to better manage their disease,” Panda shared with GB
Magazine. “Unlike counting calories, time-restricted eating is a
simple dietary intervention to incorporate, and we found that
participants were able to keep the eating schedule.”
The team has also pursued studies around cancer and circadian
rhythm. In January 2018, the lab published a paper in the
journal Nature, describing how targeting the circadian clock in
cancer cells could work as a therapy. Cancer cells disrupt their
cellular clocks so they can get nutrients all the time to support
their unchecked growth. The team found that when drugs are
used to reactivate the circadian clock in tumors, cancer cells
can’t survive. Meanwhile healthy cells are unharmed because
they are already accustomed to following the clock.
“Eating and drinking everything (except water) within a consistent
10-hour window allows your body to rest and restore for 14
hours at night. Your body can also anticipate when you will
eat so it can prepare to optimize metabolism,” says Emily
Manoogian, a postdoctoral fellow in the Panda lab.
Currently, Panda, Manoogian and others in the lab are
conducting a larger time-restricted eating study with metabolic
syndrome patients as well as one with firefighters, who, like other
shift workers, are at higher risk for chronic diseases because of
how their schedule disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms.
To learn more about this field of research and listen to an
interview with Manoogian, check out the Where Cures
Begin podcast on www.salk.edu/podcast, iTunes or other
podcast platforms. For more information about the Salk
Institute, please visit: www.salk.edu.
Satchin Panda and
Emily Manoogian
FEBRUARY 2020 | GBSAN.COM 69