Roles of Melatonin in Humans and other Eukaryotes

My current research interest is melatonin. This has been my research interest for 20 year, from when I first developed the GCMS assay for melatonin with Dr. S. Markey. I then went on to show that bright light could regulate melatonin production in humans, and that people who become depressed in the winter could be treated with bright light. My interests then turned to light treatment of circadian phase disorders, including jet lag, shift work, and advanced and delayed sleep phase syndrome. I am now treating these disorders with physiological doses of melatonin at critical times of the day.

Over the years, my colleagues and I have become interested in the question: Does melatonin have any direct soporific effects, unrelated to circadian phase shifting? Investigating this question involves administering melatonin at different doses and at various times of the day to normal controls under certain experimental conditions and to shift workers and air travelers. In the process, I have not only gone back to my initial focus on melatonin (having diverted to the field of light treatment for a number of years) but have also become a pharmacologist again. Indeed, my colleagues and I study a number of different melatonin pharacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. However, at heart I am primarily interested in the question: what does melatonin do in humans.

More recently, my colleague Robert Sack and I have become interested in totally blind people. These people have 24.5 hour rhythms and drift later each day. We have discovered that a daily dose of melatonin can entrain them to 24 hours and treat their recurrent sleep disorder.

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