Progress Potential And Possibilities Podcast

A broader conversation about the trajectory of circadian research. Where the field has come from, what it has established, and what it might deliver next. Less a how to than a view of the discipline from someone who has spent a career inside it.

The arc Dr Panda describes runs from single genes and molecules to whole organisms. Early work on what sets the pace of the clock, including the link between NAD metabolism and clock speed and the role of ROR nuclear hormone receptors and chromatin regulation. Then whole genome time series studies across more than sixty tissues, brain regions and the gut microbiome. Then human studies using apps and wearables at population scale. He is now extending it by integrating laboratory work, computational and AI research, and wearable sensor technology.

The policy thread is the interesting one. Circadian interventions require no drug and no device, which makes them unusually suited to public health at scale, and unusually neglected because nobody profits from them.