Tomorrow, Tuesday 13.1. at 14:00:
Lähettäjä: Vöikar, Vootele <vootele.voikar@helsinki.fi>
Aihe: FIN3R webinar - “A day in the life of a mouse: Regulation of rodent behaviour by light and circadian rhythms”
Please feel free to share the following invitation with your colleagues - excellent speaker and important topic:
Registration is open for the free webinar
“A day in the life of a mouse: Regulation of rodent behaviour by light and circadian rhythms”
which will be presented by Prof Stuart Peirson, University of Oxford, UK.
Date: Tuesday, 13.01.2026, at 14:00 (EET, in Helsinki)
ABSTRACT
Life on Earth has evolved under a predictably changing cycle of light and darkness. As a result, virtually all organisms possess a circadian clock, enabling them to anticipate rhythmic
changes in the environment. The primary circadian pacemaker is located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) and regulates clocks found in cells and tissues throughout the body. This SCN clock is entrained (synchronised) to the external light/dark
cycle via light detected by the retina. Work on circadian entrainment has led to the identification of a new photoreceptor system in the eye, comprised of a subset of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells expressing the blue-light sensitive protein melanopsin.
As well as regulating circadian rhythms, light also exerts acute effects on physiology and behaviour, including hormone production, sleep/arousal, mood, learning/memory and even pain. In this talk I will describe the regulation of circadian rhythms and sleep,
with a particular focus on the role of light. I will then go on to describe how light levels are often poorly controlled in animal husbandry and experimental research, and simple steps we can take to better measure lighting from the perspective of laboratory
rodents.
SPEAKER
Stuart Peirson is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and Deputy Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) at the University of Oxford. After a degree in Neuroscience
at Sheffield University, he studied for a PhD at UCL, then worked as a postdoc and lecturer at Imperial College, before moving to Oxford in 2006. The Peirson Lab is primarily interested in how light regulates physiology and behaviour. As well as vision, the
retina contains photoreceptors that regulate many different processes, such as circadian rhythms, sleep and cognitive function. The central aim of his work is to understand how light information is transmitted from photoreceptor to brain to drive these responses.
The group has a particular interest in how our modern artificial light environment affects health, and in the mechanisms underlying the disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms in mental health disorders. Prof Peirson was part of the team that first characterised
these circadian photoreceptors in humans, as well as leading research on the molecular mechanisms of jetlag and circadian disruption in mouse disease models. He was also a key contributor to lighting guidelines for circadian responses that have now been adopted
by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) and are widely used in building design. In addition to serving on multiple animal ethics committees, he chairs the University of Oxford’s 3Rs sub-committee and has developed many novel non-invasive methods
for studying mouse physiology and behaviour.
Registration for this webinar is required (**This webinar will be locked when the meeting room limit (300) is reached**):
Register in advance for this meeting:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
During the webinar, please keep your
cameras off and your microphones muted. After the main talk, we have time for discussion where you can participate with your face and voice!
With best regards, Vootele Voikar
---------------------------------------------------------
Vootele Voikar (PhD, Research coordinator)
Laboratory Animal Center
Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE)
P.O. Box 29 (Mustialankatu 1G)
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Phone: +358 2941 57658
E-mail: vootele.voikar@helsinki.fi
Comprehensive
Model Organisms Platform (CoMO)
Mouse
Behavioral Phenotyping Facility MBPF