Stuart Peirson BSc PhD
Research Themes
Divisional Themes
- Genetics and Genomics
- Behavioural Science
- Neuroscience
- Bioinformatics and Statistics
- Integrative Physiology
NLO Themes
Collaborators
- Prof R.G. Foster, NLO
- Prof M.W. Hankins, NLO
- Ms Susan Downes, Oxford Eye Hosptial
- Mr CK Patel, Oxford Eye Hosptial
- Dr Matthew Wood, DPAG
- Dr Pat Nolan
- Prof Joke Meijer, University of Leiden
- Dr Giles Duffield, Notre Dame, USA
- Dr Merrick Moseley, City University
- Dr Silvia Gatti-McArthur, Hoffman-La Roche
- Dr Joe Wettstein, Hoffman-La Roche
Publications from S.Peirson
- Thompson Stewart, Lupi Daniela, Hankins Mark W, Peirson Stuart N, and Foster Russell G (2008) The effects of rod and cone loss on the photic regulation of locomotor activity and heart rate. Eur J Neurosci, 28(4):724-9.
- Peirson Stuart and Foster Russell G (2006) Melanopsin: another way of signaling light. Neuron, 49(3):331-9.
- Peirson Stuart N, Butler Jason N, Duffield Giles E, Takher Sharanjit, Sharma Puneet, and Foster Russell G (2006) Comparison of clock gene expression in SCN, retina, heart, and liver of mice. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 351(4):800-7.
- Peirson Stuart N, Bovee-Geurts Petra HM, Lupi Daniela, Jeffery Glen, DeGrip Willem J, and Foster Russell G (2004) Expression of the candidate circadian photopigment melanopsin (Opn4) in the mouse retinal pigment epithelium. Brain Res Mol Brain Res, 123(1-2):132-5.
- Parry Juliet WL, Peirson Stuart N, Wilkens Horst, and Bowmaker James K (2003) Multiple photopigments from the Mexican blind cavefish, Astyanax fasciatus: a microspectrophotometric study. Vision Res, 43(1):31-41.
| Contact address | Levels 5 & 6 West Wing, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Department | Department of Ophthalmology |
The vertebrate retina contains photoreceptors that mediate the dual tasks of image formation and irradiance (brightness) detection. Dr Peirson’s research focuses on how the light environment regulates physiology and behaviour. These irradiance detection tasks include the regulation of the circadian clock, locomotor activity, sleep/wake timing, pupil constriction, pineal melatonin synthesis and heart rate. The central aims of this work are to understand how light information is transmitted from photoreceptor to brain and to identify the exent to which physiology and behaviour is regulated by light. This work relies upon the a range of molecular techniques such as the measurement of gene expression (using qPCR and microarrays) and gene silencing, in addition to an array of behavioural techniques including circadian behavioural monitoring, pupillometry and sleep scoring. Application of photobiological approaches as well as biostatistics and bioinformatics underpin this work.
Sources of Funding
Biography
Stuart Peirson is a Senior Research Scientist in the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. His PhD in Neuroscience at the Institute of Ophthalmology UCL on photopigments and circadian biology resulted in a subsequent move to Imperial College to work with Prof Russell Foster as a BBSRC postdoctoral Research Associate. During this time Dr Peirson also acted as technical supervisor for the quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) facility at Charing Cross Hospital. Working as a Wellcome Trust Research Associate, Dr Peirson contributed to the identification of the melanopsin pRGC system in humans as well as the characterisation of melanopsin signalling pathways. Dr Peirson was appointed as a Lecturer at Imperial College in 2005 before moving to the University of Oxford in 2006. His work has continued to focus on circadian photobiology, characterisation of genes involved in circadian entrainment and identification of novel targets for the regulation of circadian rhythms and sleep. Through collaborations with clinical colleagues in the Oxford Eye Hospital he has also been involved in evaluating the impact of ocular disease on sleep and circadian rhythms.
