Translational Chronobiology and Chronomedicine
Chronobiology and Personalised Management of Diabetes and Nutrition
Our bodies run on time. Almost every cell in the body follows a daily rhythm, known as the circadian rhythm, which helps coordinate vital processes like hormone release, sleep, metabolism, and blood sugar control.
At the Geneva Diabetes Centre, multiple research groups are working together to understand how these internal clocks influence metabolic health—and how disruptions may contribute to diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
What is the circadian clock?
It’s your body’s built-in 24-hour timer, shaped by billions of years of evolution, to anticipate the earth’s daily cycle of light and darkness. The master clock in the brain responds to light, while other “peripheral” clocks in organs like the liver, pancreas, muscle, and fat respond to your behaviours—when you eat, sleep, and move.
In modern life, however, this finely tuned system is often disrupted. Late-night light exposure, irregular sleep, shift work, and erratic eating patterns can throw the clocks out of sync—a state called circadian misalignment. This happens when your internal body clocks are no longer aligned with each other or with the external environment (like daylight). Circadian misalignment has been linked to increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer.
Within the Geneva Diabetes Centre, this time-of-day research is carried out by complementary research groups:
Prof. Dibner’s group
This team focuses on the fundamental biology of circadian rhythms in metabolic tissues. Their research includes:
- Understanding how these clocks work in different metabolic tissues—including the pancreas, muscle, and fat
- Studying how this clock system controls hormones regulating blood sugar like insulin and glucagon
- Investigating how circadian rhythms change in obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes, as a basis for novel therapies
- Exploring chronotherapy approaches that align treatment timing with the body’s rhythms, including early studies in cancer treatment
Prof. Collet’s group
This team focuses on chrononutrition, the study of how meal timing impacts health.
- Testing time-restricted eating and other intermittent fasting strategies targeting meal timing to improve metabolic health
- Conducting cohort studies in shift workers to understand how irregular schedules impact metabolic health—and how we might reduce risk through tailored interventions
Our goal is to bring biological timing into clinical care—because when it comes to preventing and managing disease, timing really is everything.
