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
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.
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 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.
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.
Dr Bloxham is a Psychology lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, where he is part of the small but growing Sleep Research Group. Anthony’s main research interests pertain to the nature and experience of dreaming, and how the process of dreaming might be connected to memory consolidation processes that take place during sleep. Anthony completed his PhD in Lincoln, which was an investigation of this topic, and the highlight of my research there was an overnight Targeted Memory Reactivation study which also sampled dream reports, attempting to reactivate memories of recently learned experiences in dream content.
Robert trained as a circadian biologist and a period in Biotech. Dr Robert Dallmann has established his group at Warwick Medical School in 2015 where he is now Associate Professor in the Division of Biomedical Science and part of a multi-disciplinary circadian community. His group is interested in how the circadian clock modulates human physiology and disruption of the clock is associated with human disease. Particularly relevant in the context of the Midlands Sleep Group, we focus on developing new assays to determine the status of the circadian clock in patient bio-samples because the clock has been shown to be a predictor of disease as well as a potential target for treatment. Thus, a bio-molecular biomarker of central or peripheral clock function has high potential to translate long-known fundamental circadian biology into clinical benefit.
Professor Bärbel Finkenstädt is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick.
She has a track record of achievement in interdisciplinary research in Statistics. Her main areas of interest are time series analysis where she has worked extensively on statistical methods for systems biology and medicine, during the last decade with particular emphasis on modelling circadian oscillations both in the molecular genetic circuitry as well as in daily behaviour of individuals. Her current focus is on analysing data from actimetry and wearable sensors to infer about the state of the circadian timing system in individuals including shift workers and cancer patients. Her aim is to develop statistical methodology to solve a challenge of personalized circadian medicine, through providing real-time information on circadian rhythms in individual patients.
Ashleigh Filtness is a Professor of Transport Human Factors and Sleep Science at Loughborough University Transport Safety Research Centre (UK).
She is fascinated by sleepiness and fatigue and their impact on safety. She completed her PhD in 2011 investigating Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and Day Time Driver Sleepiness supervised by Dr Louise Reyner and Prof Jim Horne. From 2011 to 2016 Ashleigh worked in Australia, first at Monash University Accident Research Centre (2011-13) then the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland at QUT (2013-16). Since returning to Loughborough in 2016 Ashleigh has developed her own research programme seeking to understand the situations which contribute to sleepiness and how these can best be managed to reduce the impact on safety. Over her career Ashleigh has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications and attracted research funding in excess of £3.3 million. She is a Chartered Biologist and a member of the Department for Transport College of Experts.
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
Dr. Andrew Hall graduated from Cambridge University in 1986 and University College London in 1989. His training included acute general medicine, chest medicine and cardiology in Ipswich, neurology & neurosurgery in Cambridge and anaesthesia & intensive care in Leicester and Nottingham. He was appointed Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1999. Dr Hall subsequently developed an interest in sleep medicine. In 2004, he joined the team at Leicester General Hospital, one of the first sleep laboratories in the UK. From 2007-2021 he was Head of Service for Adult Sleep Medicine at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. He led and grew a department of 5 physicians and 6 technologists. He has previously served as both Secretary and Treasurer to the British Sleep Society. His research interests and recent publications relate to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and metabolic medicine, chronotype and metabolic medicine, the perioperative management of patients with OSA and aspects of other sleep disorders such as insomnia and narcolepsy.
Dr Iuliana Hartescu is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University. With 12 years’ research experience in the area of sleep health and physical activity, Iuliana has expertise in the delivery of behavioural intervention for improved sleep health, the authorship and administration of digital health interventions, as well as the epidemiology of daytime health-related behaviours and sleep outcomes.
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.
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
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.
Dr. Fran Pilkington-Cheney is a Lecturer in Psychology and Sleep at the School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University (NTU).
Dr Pilkington-Cheney’s primary research interests are in the measurement, management and mitigation of sleepiness and fatigue during safety critical tasks (e.g., when driving, during shift work). She is also interested in the effect of sleep on cognitive functioning and day-to-day life (including women’s health), transport safety, human behaviour and both applied and experimental research. Dr Pilkington-Cheney is the Co-Investigator and Project Manager of a 3yr Road Safety Trust grant (SleepiEST, 2023-2026) exploring driver sleepiness in shift workers and using this data to develop a sleepiness-risk estimation and prediction tool. Dr Pilkington-Cheney is also chair of the Early Career Researcher Network for the European Sleep Research Society (2022-2024).
Prof Caroline Richards is Professor 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 Monisha gained her Masters degree in Physiotherapy (2016) at Sri Ramakrishna College of Physiotherapy, Tamilnadu Dr.MGR Medical University, India followed by a PhD from the SRM Institute of Science and Technology (2022). Monisha’s PhD work focused on the development and validation of assessment tool for the diagnosis of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Monisha also worked as an assistant professor in SRM College of Physiotherapy, where her research activities were focused in the area of DCD, with a particular interest in rehabilitation.
Monisha joined Loughborough University as a Research Associate in Health, the Environment and Sleep in March 2023. Monisha works part of a multi-disciplinary team of psychologists, engineers and experts in user-centered design and health at Loughborough University, which will examine the impact of heatwaves and the bedroom thermal environment on sleep and wellbeing.
One of Monisha’s research areas focussed on development and validation of assessment tool and investigating the physiological impact of sleep deprivation in school children with smart phone addiction. Monisha’s current research interests include the impact of environmental factors on sleep quality and well-being in the UK population.
Dr Alex Scott is a Lecturer in Psychology at Keele University. Dr Scott’s interests broadly include the transdiagnostic role sleep plays in the experience of mental health difficulties. Specifically, research aiming to understand mechanisms of action that might explain how sleep exerts an effect on mental health, implementing evidenced based interventions designed to improve sleep into routine health settings, and how we might make digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia less prone to non-engagement and attrition.
Dr Andrew Surtees is Associate Professor 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.
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.
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.
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.
Affiliated Members
Thomas Bilterys
Dr Thomas Bilterys is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warwick and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He started his Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – COFUND EUTOPIA Science and Innovation Fellowship at Warwick University in October 2023.
Thomas completed his PhD in health science from Ghent University and Rehabilitation Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2022. After his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Pain in Motion Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Health. His research mainly aims to increase insight into the interaction between sleep and pain and to improve the treatment of insomnia and chronic pain. His current research focuses on insomnia in people with chronic pain and possible treatment adaptations which consider the sleep-pain relationship to further enhance treatment.
Kate Bosak
Kate Bosak was awarded a Psychology PhD studentship at Nottingham Trent University, beginning October 2023. Here, she will explore sleep after catastrophic injury, under the supervision of Professor John Groeger and Dr Fran Pilkington-Cheney.
Kate graduated with a first-class Honours Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from NTU in 2022. After graduating, Kate worked at NTU as the development manager for Sleep Well Science – a sleep assessment and remediation service for individuals who have sustained injury.
Her research interests include sleep after catastrophic injury – its relationship with recovery, medication use, fatigue, sleep disorders, and pain, across different injury classes – spinal, head, limb, etc.
Sophie Fletcher
Sophie Fletcher is a Research Assistant at the Warwick Medical School (WMS), University of Warwick.
Sophie’s research interests broadly focus on mental health and wellbeing interventions within non-clinical settings. This stemmed from her work on the Mental Health & Productivity Pilot programme (MHPP), where she delivered CBT-I to individuals across the Midlands region through a workplace wellbeing intervention. In line with her earlier research interests in body image and eating disorders, Sophie is also interested in exploring whether similar models of intervention delivery can be implemented in alternative non-clinical settings. As such, Sophie is also working with colleagues from the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield to explore whether a CBT-based intervention for eating disorders can be delivered to young people via the school setting.
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.
Amber Tout
Dr Amber Tout is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Warwick.
Amber completed her Psychology PhD at the University of Sussex in 2023, where her research focused on investigating the relationships between positive psychological traits (e.g., mindfulness, self-compassion, gratitude, optimism), cognitive emotion regulation, and good sleep quality and quantity. She also explored the utility of an optimism intervention as a means to improve sleep outcomes in a student population. More recently, Amber joined the Mental Health and Wellbeing Unit at the University of Warwick, where she is helping to co-develop a new sleep management program for shift workers and their employers.