I am a graduate student in Iggy Provencio's lab. As a lab, we are interested in a newly discovered set of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells expressing the photopigment melanopsin. Melanopsin cells have been shown to play an important role in non-visual photophysiology, but they interact with classical photoreceptors of the mammalian retina, rods and cones, for a full synchronization to the day/night cycles. My behavioral and physiological studies aim to understand the nature of interactions between these three photoreceptors of the mouse retina (rods, cones and melanopsin cells) and their roles in regulation of circadian behavior.