Shift work, which refers to a work schedule outside the hours of 7AM and 6PM, is a global practice employed across multiple industries. Decades of research has identified shift workers as being at high risk for serious chronic diseases, including inflammatory conditions like colitis. It is my hypothesis that the poor health outcomes of this group are driven by chronic disruption of their circadian biology. The circadian clock coordinates biological processes and behaviors with the environment light cycle determined by the Earth’s 24-hour rotation. Light signals entering the eye are processed by a master clock in the brain. This clock then coordinates the activity of peripheral clocks throughout the rest of the body with the light cycle. At the cellular level, peripheral clocks involve CLOCK/BMAL1, a transcription activator complex which drives the rhythmic expression of several hundreds of genes. Despite the strong link between circadian disruption and altered immunity, the mechanisms by which the circadian clock shapes several immune functions remain unclear. My research seeks to address this knowledge gap by probing the role of the circadian clock in maintaining gut health. In pursuit of this question, I have uncovered a potential mechanism by which the circadian clock directs the production of antimicrobial peptides in the small intestine, which are essential for defense against gastrointestinal pathogens like Salmonella. Future work will examine the mechanism by which the circadian clock regulates these antimicrobial peptides and the impact of chronic infection on their rhythmic production.