Michael Harvey Hastings is a British neuroscientist who works at the
Medical Research Council MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. Hastings is known for his contributions to the current understanding of biological clocks in mammals and marine invertebrates.
Background
Hastings was admitted to the
University of Liverpool to study marine biology (1974) and his PhD was spent at the University’s Port Erin Marine Biological Station on the Isle of Man (1977–80). With a view to becoming a science teacher, he took a Post-graduate Certificate of Education (Technical) at the
Victoria University of Manchester, but then elected to pursue a career in biological research. He is married to neuroscientist Angela Charlotte Roberts (
University of Cambridge).
Career and research
Hastings’ PhD work introduced him to biological clocks, in the context of tidal and semi-lunar rhythms in the marine isopod crustacean Eurydice pulchra (Leach). With a post-doctoral position in Cambridge (Department of Anatomy, supervisor Joe Herbert) he moved into seasonal time-keeping in mammals with a focus on the role of the
pineal gland
The pineal gland, conarium, or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates. The pineal gland produces melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone which modulates sleep, sleep patterns in both circadian rhythm, circ ...
and its hormone
melatonin
Melatonin is a natural product found in plants and animals. It is primarily known in animals as a hormone released by the pineal gland in the brain at night, and has long been associated with control of the sleep–wake cycle.
In vertebrates ...
in photoperiodic regulation of reproduction and metabolism. In 1984 he was appointed to a junior lectureship, receiving tenure in 1988 and a readership in neuroscience in 1998. In this time he developed a research programme into the cellular actions of melatonin in the brain, and the
neurochemistry of the central
circadian clock
A circadian clock, or circadian oscillator, is a biochemical oscillator that cycles with a stable phase (waves), phase and is synchronized with solar time.
Such a clock's ''in vivo'' period is necessarily almost exactly 24 hours (the earth's curre ...
, the
suprachiasmatic nucleus
The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei (SCN) is a tiny region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. The neuronal and hormonal activities it generates regula ...
(SCN) of the
hypothalamus. In 2001 he moved to the Division of Neurobiology at the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge) as a Group Leader to develop molecular genetic approaches to understanding the SCN molecular clockwork. His recent work
has focussed on the genetic basis of cellular circadian time-keeping in mammals, the role of intercellular signalling in synchronising and stabilising the neural circuitry of the SCN, and the role of circadian mechanisms in normal metabolic regulation and its dysregulation in neurodegenerative disease. In October 2013 Hastings joined
Michel Goedert as joint head of the Division of Neurobiology, and since May 2015 has been sole Head of Division.
Awards and honours
* 1996
Mortyn Jones Prize, British Society for Neuroendocrinology* 2007
* 2008
Elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences* 2008 - Elected as President of the
Society for Research on Biological Rhythm
* 2010
Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society* 2013 - Special Award Lecturer,
British Society for Neuroendocrinology The British Society for Neuroendocrinology (BSN) was formally established in 2001 to promote learning and research into neuroendocrinology. Publications of the Society include the '' Journal of Neuroendocrinology'' and Neuroendorcrine Briefings'' Si ...
* 2014 -
Ellison-Cliffe Lecturebr>
Prize and Medal, Royal Society of Medicine* 2018
Brenner Lecturer, The Salk Institute* 2018
MRC Plenary Lecturer at the Society for Toxicology
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings, Michael Harvey
Fellows of the Royal Society
British neuroscientists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester