Researchers detect receptor for day/night cycles
...r retina." In their study, the researchers deleted melanopsin from the inner retinal cells of transgenic mice. M...pplicable to humans who are blind but who have the melanopsin receptor. They may still be able to synchronize their biological rhythms, he says....Body's internal clock is set by newly discovered light detection system in the eye
...es in the USA had also shown thatswitching off the melanopsin gene upsets the body clock and reduces pupilrespon...these results. Using mice thatlacked rod, cone and melanopsin function they set out to investigate whetherthere was any residual response to light. It was shown t...At last: Just three cell types detect light in the eye
...d special retinal cells that make a protein called melanopsin together account for the entirety of a mouse's rea...We're fairly confident the rod/cone system and the melanopsin system are the mammalian eye's only two systems for detecting light levels," says King-Wai Yau, Ph.D...Eye's light-detection system revealed
...ght. One set of mice were missing the gene for the melanopsin protein, the others lacked rods and cones. In mice without melanopsin, only rods and cones send light to the brain, and in mice without rods and cones, only retinal ganglion cells do so. In normal mice, the pupil becomes the size of a pinhole when e...Researchers link melanopsin gene to unexplored light detection system within the eye
...the UK and USA have provided a direct link between melanopsin and this system. Melanopsin is an opsin-like prote...etina of the eye. The research team tested whether melanopsin is part of the new light detecting system by measuring light-induced pupillary constriction in genet...Researchers identify key pathway in the pupils response to light
...mice lacking another potential photopigment called melanopsin also have abnormal pupillary responses. "Together these studies suggest a rich and complex non-visual photoreceptive system in the inner retina," Van Gelder says. He says this light meter-like system seems to be important in a different brain pathw...Molecule helps pupils respond to light
...Science , the researchers report that the molecule melanopsin is necessary in order for the pupil to constrict p...evels. Although earlier studies had indicated that melanopsin was part of a light-sensing system, in the latest research Yau and his colleagues sought to demonstr...Science's top ten: Discovery of genes' 'control switches' named top advance of 2002
... melanopsin. Two studies this month confirmed that melanopsin responds chemically to light, though other compounds may be involved. Sharpened View of Space: New technology erased the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere on telescopes' view of the heavens in 2002. The result, enabled by the flexing of thin mi...Mouse gene knockout illuminates how light resets clock
... for it. Mice lacking a gene for the photopigment melanopsin show a dramatic deficiency in their ability to reg...orman Ruby, Ph.D., Stanford University, also found melanopsin to be a "significant contributor" to circadian function.** Each day, a clock in the brain's hypothal...Scientists shed new light on the body's internal clock
...d University and Deltagen Inc. have confirmed that melanopsin does indeed transmit light information from the ey... the internal clock. According to the researchers, melanopsin may be one of several photosensitive receptors that work redundantly to regulate the circadian syste...Gene responsible for rewinding body's 'clock' described by scientists at TSRI
... now. A Light Even the Blind Can See In mammals, melanopsin is expressed in approximately 1000 cells per retina. "Most of these cells project directly to the master circadian oscillator in the brain," says Satchidananda Panda, Ph.D., a graduate of TSRI's Kellogg School of Science and Technology. The master c...Single cell type seems to control internal clock and pupil of eye
... fellow Samer Hattar, Ph.D., created a mouse whose melanopsin protein was partially replaced with another, easy-...created a line of mice with one normal copy of the melanopsin gene and one copy that coded for a protein called tau-lacZ instead. In addition, Hopkins neuroscienc......ce-labeled antibodies that selectively attached to melanopsin to label the retinal ganglion cells that might be ...y about 2,500, or two percent, were labeled by the melanopsin antibody." Labeling revealed that melanopsin is present throughout those cells -- including the cell...