Photoreceptors in the mammalian eye perform two quite different sensory tasks. The familiar function is to detect light for vision via the rod and cone cells. A less well-recognized role is to provide a measure of gross change in environmental light for a wide range of non-visual tasks including the setting of the body clock to the external lighting environment.

Research from this department led to the discovery of the photoreceptor cells that primarily drive non-visual functions: the photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. Current research in the department covers the physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of visual and non-visual photoreceptor cells in both mammalian and non-mammalian species.