Date and Time: July 15, 2025 at 1:00 pm, CT
Speaker: Angus C. Burns, PhD.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders
Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine
Broad Institute, Program in Medical and Population Genetics
Title: “Sleep & Circadian Misalignment: Sleep Inertia as a Novel Biomarker”
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The session will introduce the audience to circadian misalignment and its consequences, with a focus on its prevalence among mood and psychotic disorders. The session will then introduce experimental evidence for sleep inertia as a biomarker of circadian misalignment. Finally, the session will explore the genetic basis of sleep inertia and epidemiological studies of its links to psychiatric disorders and suicide
Dr. Angus C. Burns is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Dr Jacqueline Lane. Dr Burns’ research focuses on large population epidemiological and genetic studies of human sleep and circadian rhythms traits and their links to human disease, with a particular focus on biomarkers of circadian misalignment and psychiatric disorders. Dr Burns’ research also investigates the epidemiology of light exposure as the primary zeitgeber of the human circadian system in the largest defined cohort of objectively measured light exposure. This work explores the link between light exposure patterns that disrupt circadian health (phase & amplitude) and poor sleep and psychiatric health.
The Virtual Seminar Series is a resource to support career development by providing opportunities for trainees and early career investigators to deliver professional talks to an audience of peers and colleagues through online seminars. Our goal is to provide a resource for Sleep Research Society members at all levels of training to get continued exposure to new and exciting sleep and circadian research methods and findings.
