I am a clinician scientist investigating the role of circadian biology in human disease. I combine this with my clinical work in cardiothoracic transplantation.

I trained in medicine and physiology at University College London. During this time, I secured a Wellcome vacation scholarship investigating whether proteinuria could be a sensitive marker of renal dysfunction after cardiac surgery. My research in chronobiology was stimulated after securing a MRC clinical research training fellowship in 2007. In 2010 I was named the British Thoracic Society's young investigator of the year enabling me to gain an academic clinical lecturer position permitting me to complete my clinical training whilst maintaining my research momentum. In 2013 I secured a clinical fellowship in Toronto concerning lung transplantation. I then secured a MRC clinician scientist award in 2014 allowing me to return to Manchester and set up my own lab investigating how research into how circadian rhythms affect disease. I then secured a MRC transition fellowship in 2019 to develop a new way to assess circadian disruption in patients. This now permits my group to investigate how this affects patients, especially those on critical care.  

A novel mechanism that influences our response to the environment consists of a group of proteins known as the circadian clock. These proteins exhibit rhythmic oscillations over a 24-hour cycle, regulating our body's reaction to stimuli based on the time of day. It is believed that up to 10% of the transcriptome is subject to this temporal control, yet its significance in relation to diseases remains poorly understood.

To date, my group’s research has investigated the connections between the circadian clock and various medical conditions, including lung transplantation, pulmonary infections, pulmonary fibrosis, and COVID-19. Additionally, my research group has elucidated how the circadian clock changes clinical outcomes in disease models. The clinical relevance of these findings however is uncertain.

To investigate this, my team has developed a test to assess circadian disruption in patients. This allows us to determine if circadian disruption is clinically relevant and how to prevent it causing adverse clinical outcomes. Initially we propose to do this in the context of cardiac surgery and transplantation due to preliminary data suggesting that targeting circadian mechanisms could halve the incidence of some adverse outcomes.

Member of the Royal College of Physicians,

British Thoracic Society

European Respiratory Society

American Thoracic Society

Endocrine Society

Royal Society of Medicine

BSc. (1st Basic Medical Sciences with Physiology)  (University College London)

MBBS (University College London)

MRCP (Royal College of Physicians)

PhD (Manchester University)