Prof. Block is currently a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science and previously served as the 6th Chancellor of University of California, Los Angeles from 2007 to 2024. Block received a BA in Psychology from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in Psychology from University of Oregon.  He performed post-doctoral research at Stanford University with Donald Kennedy (Director of the FDA 1977-1979; President of Stanford University 1980-1992) and Colin Pittendrigh (one of the key “Founders” of the field of Chronobiology). He joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1978.

Block’s lab pioneered cellular chrono-neurobiology, and initially used molluscan models like the marine snail Bulla gouldiana (Gould’s Paper Bubble) to elucidate fundamental properties of neural circadian pacemakers, including the cell-autonomous nature of pacemaking in clock neurons, ionic mechanisms of rhythms generation and resetting, and together with Terry Page, the nature of bilateral pacemaker coupling.  These seminal findings in the neuro-physiologically tractable Bulla ocular clock laid the foundation for mechanistic studies of clock neurons in the mammalian and fruit fly neural clocks. Based on his laboratory’s expertise with long-term recordings of neural oscillators in vitro, Block’s lab was one of the first laboratories to study the rhythms of the SCN in culture.  Later research has focused on aging of the biological clock system in mammals.

Additionally, Prof. Block served as the founding Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center in Biological Timing (CBT) at University of Virginia.  This multi-institution Center elevated circadian biology, and through its support of key investigators catalyzed fundamental discoveries revealing the molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms in fruit flies and mammals. In particular support from the CBT helped enable the genetic screens that resulted in the discovery of Clock in mice, Toc1 in Arabidopsis, and several new clock mutants in Drosophila. In 2017 three CBT investigators (J. Hall, M. Rosbash, and M. Young) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine “for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm”.

Block trained many key circadian PIs, including (among others) McMahon, Herzog, Colwell, Davidson, Whitmore, Khalsa, and Michel. Having stepped down as Chancellor, Prof. Block now continues his investigations of biological clocks.

Recent publications:

Long wavelength light reduces the negative consequences of dim light at night.

Wang HB, Zhou D, Luk SHC, In Cha H, Mac A, Chae R, Matynia A, Harrison B, Afshari S, Block GD, Ghiani CA, Colwell CS.Neurobiol Dis. 2023 Jan;176:105944. 

Circadian-based Treatment Strategy Effective in the BACHD Mouse Model of Huntington's Disease.

Whittaker DS, Loh DH, Wang HB, Tahara Y, Kuljis D, Cutler T, Ghiani CA, Shibata S, Block GD, Colwell CS.

Chronic methamphetamine uncovers a circadian rhythm in multiple-unit neural activity in the dorsal striatum which is independent of the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Miyazaki S, Tahara Y, Colwell CS, Block GD, Nakamura W, Nakamura TJ.Neurobiol Sleep Circadian Rhythms. 2021 Jun 25;11:100070. 

Melatonin treatment of repetitive behavioral deficits in the Cntnap2 mouse model of autism spectrum disorder.

Wang HB, Tahara Y, Luk SHC, Kim YS, Hitchcock ON, MacDowell Kaswan ZA, In Kim Y, Block GD, Ghiani CA, Loh DH, Colwell CS.Neurobiol Dis. 2020 Nov;145:105064.