Timothy Hearn

Dr Hearn runs the Comparative Chronomics research group. We discover how circadian clocks work in different species by taking a comparative biology approach. The Comparative Chronomics group is based at Anglia Ruskin University and in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge.

Chronobiology is the study of biological time. We are interested in daily and seasonal time keeping mechanisms – circadian and photoperiodic oscillators. We utilise genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics to make comparisons between systems.

We are especially interested in the usage of chronobiology in genomic medicine; for which we have coined the term “Chronomic Medicine”. Our goal is to investigate how chronobiology impacts human health and disease.

We are using the tools of genomic medicine to cement the idea of Chronomic Medicine – delivering mechanistic basis for the role of the circadian clock in the inheritance and phenotypes of rare disease and answering the community wide call to explore all potential aspects of circadian medicine.

Dr Hearn is a College Lecturer and Director of Studies at Newnham College, Cambridge.