Co-Chairs
Brendan Cooper
Prof Brendan Cooper is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Respiratory Physiology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and also a Hon. Professor in Respiratory & Sleep Physiology at the University of Birmingham.
Prof Cooper’s clinical interests include weekly sleep apnoea clinics, leading the sleep disordered breathing service as well as a research programme which includes the evaluation of equipment, development of standards of quality for sleep disordered breathing services. His research portfolio includes a wide spectrum of respiratory physiology from the resting state to exercise and sleep.
Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz is Academy of Finland postdoctoral research fellow, at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), in Helsinki, Finland, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Mental Health (IMH), at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Morales-Muñoz´s main research interests lie within the field of sleep, neuropsychology and mental health. Her current research focuses on sleep development in early childhood and the links with neurodevelopmental disorders; in addition to understand the role of sleep in the development of mental health and health-related problems.
Core Members
Manny Bagary
Dr Manny Bagary runs a tertiary epilepsy service in Birmingham which includes a surgical programme, VNS clinic, modified ketogenic diet service for adults and has a particular interest in mental health comorbidity in epilepsy. He is actively involved in epilepsy research and is currently involved in a number of NIHR studies evaluating novel AEDs.
Dr Bagary is an elected council member and treasurer of the ILAE-UK Chapter. He is the CRN lead for epilepsy research in the West Midlands.
Prof Andrew Bagshaw is Professor in Imaging Neuroscience; Director of the Birmingham University Imaging Centre; and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Brain Health, at the University of Birmingham.
His main interest is in developing and applying non-invasive neuroimaging methods to questions in clinical and behavioural neuroscience. His current work focuses on using EEG-fMRI to understand the influence of ongoing brain activity on evoked and behavioural responses, and to examine the localisation and functional significance of electrophysiological discharges in epilepsy and sleep.
Dr George Balanos is Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, at the School of Sport, Excersice and Rehabilitation Excercise, at the University of Birmingham.
His main research interests include the regulation of blood flow in humans both during exercise and in disease, and the regulation of breathing, especially sleep disordered breathing.
Richard Glover
Richard Glover is a clinical scientist based in the Lung Function and Sleep Department at Good Hope Hospital (University Hospitals Birmingham).
His clinical interests include working with patients requiring non-invasive positive pressure therapies for the management of sleep disordered breathing. Further interests include using research and quality improvement methodologies to improve local practice and thereby improve patient care
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Syed Huq
Dr Syed Huq is a consultant respiratory and sleep physician based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. During the final year of his specialty training he undertook a clinical fellowship at the Papworth sleep centre, one of the largest tertiary sleep services in the UK. He also obtained the European Somnologist accreditation in sleep medicine in September 2016, and the Registered Polysmonographic Technologist accreditation in sleep study reporting in May 2017. He is one of the core members of the cross-site multi-disciplinary sleep team at UHB providing a comprehensive sleep service for respiratory and non-respiratory sleep disorders. He is also involved with acute and domiciliary home ventilation service at QEHB.
Shyam Madathil
Dr Shyam Madathil is the cross site sleep medical lead for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHSF trust.
He is a Consultant in General, Respiratory and Sleep medicine and Senior clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and has the European Diploma in Adult Respiratory Medicine and is an ESRS certified Somnologist.
His clinics care for patients with a variety of respiratory and non respiratory sleep disorders and respiratory failure.
His research interests include sleep disordered breathing and breathing disorders in inherited metabolic conditions.
Dr Caroline Richards is Senior Lecturer in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, at the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
The aim of Dr Richards’ research is to reduce negative clinical outcomes for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her work with children with autism and children with rare genetic syndromes has thus far focused on reducing self-injury, improving sleep disorders and understanding the impact of premature birth.
Dr Andrew Surtees is Lecturer in Psychology, at the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Surtees is an expert in social cognition, autism and mental health. He combines cutting-edge research on social understanding in typical and atypical populations with practice as a Clinical Psychologist. He is interested in the impact of sleep deprivation on social cognition and in the impact of social difficulties on sleep.
Dr Abd A Tahrani is NHIR Clinical Scientist at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Tahrani leads a multi-disciplinary research group that includes scientists, clinicians and allied health-care professionals. The aims of this research group are to: 1) examine the impact of sleep-related disorders (including obstructive apnoea) on metabolic health, diabetes and obesity; 2) improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes-related microvascular complications; 3) improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of foot ulceration in diabetes and develop new treatments; 4) explore the pharmacological and non-pharmacological options to treat and manage patients with obesity (including the long-term outcomes of bariatric surgery); and 5) develop new treatments for type 2 diabetes
Max Thomas
Max Thomas is a clinical scientist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital with a specialist interest in complex breathlessness, exercise physiology and sleep.
He currently leads the cardiopulmonary exercise testing service at the hospital, but he is intimately involved with services including oxygen therapy; occupational lung disease; measurement of sleep (full-polysomnography); treatment and monitoring of sleep disordered breathing; severe asthma; and interstitial lung disease. He also has a burgeoning interest in upper airway disorders and excessive dynamic airway collapse – both during exertion and sleep.
Affiliated Members
Co-Chairs
Brendan Cooper
Prof Brendan Cooper is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Respiratory Physiology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and also a Hon. Professor in Respiratory & Sleep Physiology at the University of Birmingham.
Prof Cooper’s clinical interests include weekly sleep apnoea clinics, leading the sleep disordered breathing service as well as a research programme which includes the evaluation of equipment, development of standards of quality for sleep disordered breathing services. His research portfolio includes a wide spectrum of respiratory physiology from the resting state to exercise and sleep.
Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz is Assistant Professor in Psychology, at the Institute for Mental Health (IMH), School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Morales-Muñoz´s main research interests lie within the field of sleep, neuropsychology and youth mental health. Her current research focuses on sleep development in early childhood and the links with neurodevelopmental disorders; in addition to understand the role of sleep in the development of mental health and health-related problems.
Core Members
Manny Bagary
Dr Manny Bagary runs a tertiary epilepsy service in Birmingham which includes a surgical programme, VNS clinic, modified ketogenic diet service for adults and has a particular interest in mental health comorbidity in epilepsy. He is actively involved in epilepsy research and is currently involved in a number of NIHR studies evaluating novel AEDs.
Dr Bagary is an elected council member and treasurer of the ILAE-UK Chapter. He is the CRN lead for epilepsy research in the West Midlands.
Prof Andrew Bagshaw is Professor in Imaging Neuroscience; Director of the Birmingham University Imaging Centre; and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Brain Health, at the University of Birmingham.
His main interest is in developing and applying non-invasive neuroimaging methods to questions in clinical and behavioural neuroscience. His current work focuses on using EEG-fMRI to understand the influence of ongoing brain activity on evoked and behavioural responses, and to examine the localisation and functional significance of electrophysiological discharges in epilepsy and sleep.
Dr George Balanos is Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, at the School of Sport, Excersice and Rehabilitation Excercise, at the University of Birmingham.
His main research interests include the regulation of blood flow in humans both during exercise and in disease, and the regulation of breathing, especially sleep disordered breathing.
Richard Glover
Richard Glover is a clinical scientist based in the Lung Function and Sleep Department at Good Hope Hospital (University Hospitals Birmingham).
His clinical interests include working with patients requiring non-invasive positive pressure therapies for the management of sleep disordered breathing. Further interests include using research and quality improvement methodologies to improve local practice and thereby improve patient care
Syed Huq
Dr Syed Huq is a consultant respiratory and sleep physician based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. During the final year of his specialty training he undertook a clinical fellowship at the Papworth sleep centre, one of the largest tertiary sleep services in the UK. He also obtained the European Somnologist accreditation in sleep medicine in September 2016, and the Registered Polysmonographic Technologist accreditation in sleep study reporting in May 2017. He is one of the core members of the cross-site multi-disciplinary sleep team at UHB providing a comprehensive sleep service for respiratory and non-respiratory sleep disorders. He is also involved with acute and domiciliary home ventilation service at QEHB.
Shyam Madathil
Dr Shyam Madathil is the cross site sleep medical lead for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHSF trust.
He is a Consultant in General, Respiratory and Sleep medicine and Senior clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and has the European Diploma in Adult Respiratory Medicine and is an ESRS certified Somnologist.
His clinics care for patients with a variety of respiratory and non respiratory sleep disorders and respiratory failure.
His research interests include sleep disordered breathing and breathing disorders in inherited metabolic conditions.
Dr Caroline Richards is Senior Lecturer in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, at the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
The aim of Dr Richards’ research is to reduce negative clinical outcomes for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her work with children with autism and children with rare genetic syndromes has thus far focused on reducing self-injury, improving sleep disorders and understanding the impact of premature birth.
Dr Andrew Surtees is Lecturer in Psychology, at the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Surtees is an expert in social cognition, autism and mental health. He combines cutting-edge research on social understanding in typical and atypical populations with practice as a Clinical Psychologist. He is interested in the impact of sleep deprivation on social cognition and in the impact of social difficulties on sleep.
Dr Abd A Tahrani is NHIR Clinical Scientist at the University of Birmingham.
Dr Tahrani leads a multi-disciplinary research group that includes scientists, clinicians and allied health-care professionals. The aims of this research group are to: 1) examine the impact of sleep-related disorders (including obstructive apnoea) on metabolic health, diabetes and obesity; 2) improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes-related microvascular complications; 3) improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of foot ulceration in diabetes and develop new treatments; 4) explore the pharmacological and non-pharmacological options to treat and manage patients with obesity (including the long-term outcomes of bariatric surgery); and 5) develop new treatments for type 2 diabetes
Prof Nicole Tang is a registered clinical and health psychologist with extensive research experience in sleep, insomnia, chronic pain and mental health. She is currently Professor of Psychology at the University of Warwick.
Prof Tang is the Director of the Warwick Sleep and Pain Laboratory and Academic Lead of the Warwick Health Global Research Priority Mental Health Theme. She leads a range of projects, from experimental studies to qualitative studies; from meta-analysis, secondary data analysis, experience sampling studies, to multi-centre randomised controlled trials. The ultimate goal of her research is to build an all-round evidence base to inform treatment development.
Max Thomas
Max Thomas is a clinical scientist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital with a specialist interest in complex breathlessness, exercise physiology and sleep.
He currently leads the cardiopulmonary exercise testing service at the hospital, but he is intimately involved with services including oxygen therapy; occupational lung disease; measurement of sleep (full-polysomnography); treatment and monitoring of sleep disordered breathing; severe asthma; and interstitial lung disease. He also has a burgeoning interest in upper airway disorders and excessive dynamic airway collapse – both during exertion and sleep.
Simon Wharton
Dr Simon Wharton is a specialist in Respiratory Medicine at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital (UHB).
Dr Wharton qualified as a respiratory physician but after being appointed consultant at QMC Nottingham, he became increasingly interested in Sleep Medicine. Heartlands Hospital has a full sleep laboratory so he moved to Birmingham in 2014 to pursue his interest. His major interests are non-respiratory sleep disorders.
Dr Georgie Agar is Lecturer at Aston University and is experienced in conducting objective sleep research with children with ID and behaviours that challenge.
Dr Agar currently leads work on the MRC funded ‘Sleep-Impulsivity-Behaviour (SIB) Study: Examining pathways to self-harm in children with autism and intellectual disability’, which aims to improve understanding of sleep and executive functioning in relation to self-injurious behaviour in children with complex needs. Dr Agar is also interested in sleep phenotypes in rare genetic syndromes, particularly Angelman and Smith-Magenis syndromes.
Sam Mostafa
Dr. Sam Mostafa is a clinical consultant in diabetes medicine and weight management at University Hospitals of Birmingham.
His research interests are in pre-diabetes and prevention of type 2 diabetes and obesity, after he undertook a Novo Nordisk Research Foundation PhD on these themes at the University of Leicester. This was followed by a clinical lectureship at Diabetes Trials Unit, University of Oxford, where he explored risks of complications of type 2 diabetes. Since joining the Birmingham team, Sam is exploring the role of general sleep health as a possible risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. His longer term aim is to explore the role of sleep manipulation in diabetes prevention
Dr Stacey Bissell is Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology, at the University of Birmingham.
From 2014 – 2018, Stacey was co-funded by Cerebra and the Tuberous Sclerosis Association to explore behaviours in children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) at the Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Currently, Dr Bisell's aims to investigate the association between sleep problems and daytime externalising behaviours in children with TSC using actigraphy and mobile app technology.
Talar Moukhtarian
Dr Talar Moukhtarian is an assistant professor (research-track) at the Warwick Medical School (WMS), University of Warwick.
With a PhD in Clinical Psychopathology, her research interests lie in the differential diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of mental health conditions. Her earlier research focused on adult ADHD, borderline personality disorder and transdiagnostic nosology across mental health conditions. More recently her focus has been in preventative care and early interventions for mental health problems in a sustainable and scalable manner, and the development and initial testing of workplace-based psychological interventions for a range of common disorders, including insomnia, depression, and anxiety.
Affiliated Members
Rory O'Sullivan
Rory O’Sullivan is a Doctoral Researcher at the Richards Lab, University of Birmingham. He began his PhD in 2021 after graduating from Loughborough University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. His work is supervised by Dr Caroline Richards, Prof Andrew Bagshaw and Dr Stacey Bissell.
Rory’s research aims to: 1) explore interactions between sleep and daytime variables (e.g. behaviours that challenge, health problems, adaptive functioning) in children with rare genetic syndromes; and 2) understand the properties of sleep and daytime outcome measures in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Michaela Pawley
Michaela was awarded a Psychology Departmental PhD Fellowship at the University of Warwick which she started in October 2022. She graduated from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, with a first-class Honours Psychology bachelor’s degree before completing the Clinical Psychology Master of Research program at the University of Birmingham focusing on emotion regulation in adolescence. Michaela’s current research is supervised by Professor Nicole Tang, Dr Isabel Morales-Muñoz and Professor Andrew Bagshaw.
Michaela’s research has the primary aim of better understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the relationship between sleep and mental health during adolescence. This is driven by her joint interests in research as well as clinical intervention work.
Rui Pereira
Dr Rui Pereira is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Birmingham, currently working on a project addressing the impact of sleep deprivation in social functioning, supervised by Dr Andrew Surtees.
Rui completed his PhD in sleep psychology and sport from Loughborough University, in 2022. Rui was awarded a doctoral studentship in 2018 and undertook his PhD at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences. Rui's doctoral work characterised the sleep of elite athletes and addressed the relationship between daytime napping and insomnia.
Peter TO
Peter TO, who has been awarded the Chancellor’s International Scholarship, is a Ph.D. student in Psychology at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Tang and Dr. Mark Elliott. Previously, he completed his bachelor’s degree in Counselling & Psychology with a first-class honour at Hong Kong Shue Yan University.
Peter’s Ph.D. topic aims to investigate the daily associations between sleep quality, pain-related outcomes, and objectively measured physical activities (i.e., accelerometers) among individuals with chronic pain.
Sam Siu-Sing Wong
Sam Wong commenced his PhD in 2022 at the Sleep and Pain Laboratory, University of Warwick, under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Tang. Previously, he completed a Bachelor degree in psychology at the University of Salford and a M.Phil degree at the Neuropsychology Laboratory, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, investigating emotion regulation and dreaming. Further, he completed a one-year placement at the Sleep Education and Research Laboratory, University College London, researching nightmare in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Sam’s doctoral research aims to understand and scrutinize the mechanism underlying the interplay between chronic pain and sleep disturbances with the particular focus on sleep architecture, especially rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its function in emotional processing.