An Award-Winning Quest to Uncover the Human Body Clock

Neuroscientist Maydel Fernandez-Alonso receives an early-career honor

Maydel Fernandez-Alonso is a postdoctoral fellow in the Max Planck Research Group for Translational Sensory and Circadian Neuroscience. She was recently honored by the Society for Light, Rhythms, and Circadian Health (SLRCH) with the J. Christian Gillin Early Career Investigator Award 2026. This prize recognizes outstanding research achievements by early-career scientists in the field of sleep and circadian science. After earning her Ph.D. in visual sciences at Newcastle University, Fernandez-Alonso devoted herself to researching how the brain processes light received from both eyes to regulate the body’s internal clock. We spoke to her about her award-winning project.

Congratulations on receiving the 2026 J. Christian Gillin Early Career Investigator Award. In your opinion, what was the most important finding that particularly caught the selection committee’s attention?

My research focuses on how light is processed in the brain to synchronize our biological clock. The role of light in image formation has been studied for decades, but how it synchronizes our internal clock is a much newer field of research that has only really been explored for about 20 years. We do not yet fully understand how the brain uses light to keep our clock in sync, and most of the mechanistic research has been conducted on animals, particularly mice. However, my work focuses on humans and, in particular, on how the clock integrates light inputs from both eyes into a single signal. Demonstrating that we can meaningfully study these mechanisms in humans despite the added complexity is, in my opinion, what really stood out.

What is the major outcome of your rewarded research project?

When you look at a light source with both eyes, the signal it sends to your internal clock is much stronger than when you look at it with just one eye, and not just because the two impressions are added together. There is a kind of additional, so called nonlinear amplification effect that occurs specifically when both eyes are involved. Interestingly, this differs greatly from how vision works: visual perception hardly changes when you close one eye, yet for the body’s internal clock, it makes a big difference whether you look with one eye or both.

What implications might this have for clinical practice or public health?

Here is an example: Night shift workers need bright light to do their jobs, but this disrupts their biological clock. By filtering light, especially blue light and in just one eye, it is possible to protect the biological clock while maintaining sufficient vision to perform the work, since vision is far less impaired when one eye is blocked. More generally, if you have to get up at night and turn on the light, closing one eye is a simple way to reduce the disruption to your biological clock.

What have you learned from this project, both scientifically and personally?

I have been collecting data for over three years now. Much of it has been practical in nature: setting up a new lab, efficiently conducting evening experiments, and working with participants who maintain a regular sleep schedule and have to come in multiple times. Since I also came from a slightly different field within neuroscience, there was a real learning curve when it came to chronotypes, sleep hormones, and handling biological samples.

What initially drew you to this field of research?

I started out in vision research, studying how light helps create images in the brain. I was fascinated by the fact that light affects us in ways we’re not aware of, it influences our sleep, our health, and our circadian rhythms. Since I am a very late chronotype myself, I found it exciting to understand how light can be used to shift a person’s circadian rhythm and improve their health. It is also a relatively new field of research, which means there is still a lot to discover.

Looking ahead: How will your research proceed, and what do you think are the biggest unanswered questions?

We have now collected an extensive dataset from our evening light experiments, and one striking pattern is how much people differ in their sensitivity to light, which is why each participant needs multiple sessions. We do not yet know what causes this variability. Using this dataset, I want to investigate whether it is related to biological sex, the season, daily light exposure, or individual retinal sensitivity, which we can measure based on pupil responses.

In your opinion, what are the biggest unanswered questions for the future of sleep research?

Individual variability is one of the most important. If we want to develop light-based treatments, for example, for seasonal depression or sleep problems that are tailored to each person, we must first understand what actually causes these differences between individuals.

What does this recognition mean to you, both personally and professionally?

Professionally, it means a great deal to me to be recognized by colleagues in my specific field of research. Personally, it feels good to receive this recognition. In science, we often make sacrifices and work long hours, so such recognition is very meaningful!

Thank you very much for your time, and wishing you all the best for the future!