Robert Maidstone

Prof Nick Wareham delivering the Pemberton Lecture

Prof Nick Wareham from @mrcepid.bsky.social & @phiuk.bsky.social delivering his invited Pemberton lecture on Translating epidemiology into public health action

#SSM2025

Circadian rhythms in cardiovascular disease Abstract. Circadian rhythms, controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus and peripheral clocks, regulate 24-h cycles in biological processes such as the card

"In heart failure, circadian rhythms are dampened but remain intact, suggesting the potential for incorporating timing in diagnostics and therapies."
academic.oup.com/eurheartj/ad...

Big news! Manchester, together with colleagues in Oxford, have been awarded an MRC CoRE in Exposome Immunology!! Exciting times ahead to uncover how pollution and other environmental factors worsen inflammatory diseases!!

Health research in England is grinding to a halt Wes Streeting, the UK health and social care secretary, announced in 2024 that “the NHS is broken” against a background of ballooning waiting lists, delays in disease detection, and reduced staff prod...

New comment piece by me & colleagues in @bmj.com on the using health data for research in UK

Processes are so complex and so slow now that less research is happening and we are wasting the enormous potential of the NHS to drive innovation

www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Was really great to attend the "Women’s Health in Greater Manchester: A Showcase of Policy, Research, Voice & Action" yesterday. Was great to hear from researchers, clinicians, and policy leads across GM who are working on and dealing with these issues.

🚨 After a brief hiatus, the UK Public Health Science conference returns in 2026 in collaboration with @socsocmed.bsky.social!
📅 Join us in Newcastle on 21 April, with dinner + ECR event on 20 April
📣 Call for abstracts coming soon
🏠 ukpublichealthscience.org
🤝 socsocmed.org.uk

Older northerners struggle with “alarming” inequalities compared to people from the South Older people in the North of England are more likely to be poorer, less healthy, physically inactive, lonely and in poor housing - resulting in millions of pounds of avoidable NHS costs.In a new repor...

Does where you live really impact your health in later life?
A new report from @thenhsa.bsky.social, partly based on @officialuom.bsky.social research, has exposed alarming disadvantages faced by older people in the North.
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/o...

Public health bodies urged to launch period tracking apps to protect data Women’s personal information at risk of being harvested by private firms running their own versions, report warns

New report on stakes of menstrual tracking: www.mctd.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Highlighted in a piece by @andrewgregory.com: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

For more scholarship on FemTech, see our (still growing) special issue in @contraceptionjl.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Study finds women who work at night more likely to have asthma A study involving more than 270,000 women found that women who work overnight were more likely to suffer from asthma. The post Study finds women who work at night more likely to have asthma appeared f...

Report in ‪@miamiherald.com‬ on asthma study: www.miamiherald.com/news/busines... @robertmaidstone.bsky.social @uniofmanchester.bsky.social @hdurrington.bsky.social

Thanks to my co-authors, @hdurrington.bsky.social, Martin Rutter, James Liu, Jack Bowden and David Ray, @asthmaandlung.org.uk for funding the study and @ukbiobank.bsky.social team and participants.

The ability to reduce the risk of women developing asthma through modification of work schedules could have significant health-economic benefits, although more research in other cohorts and clinical studies is needed.

This is the first study to evaluate sex differences in the relationship between shift work frequency and asthma; an important topic from a public health perspective. This study is in the UK biobank cohort, a large cohort of over 500,000 people with linked health and employment data.

We showed that postmenopausal and premenopausal permanent night shift-workers had higher odds of moderate-severe asthma when compared to corresponding day workers, but only premenopausal females had a significant interaction between sex and shift work frequency.

Compared to women day workers, women permanent night shift workers had a higher likelihood of moderate-severe asthma (OR: 1.50 (95% CI 1.18 – 1.91)) but there was no corresponding relationship seen in men (OR 0.95 (95% CI 0.72 – 1.26)).

Our new paper has graduated from medRxiv to being published in ERJ Open!! "Increased risk of asthma in female night shift workers." doi.org/10.1183/2312...

Women who work nightshifts are more likely to have asthma Women who work night shifts are more likely to suffer with moderate or severe asthma compared to women who work in the daytime, according to a University of Manchester study published today (Monday) i...

www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/w...

Out today.. new research from @robertmaidstone.bsky.social

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer (Teaching & Research) (3 posts available):Manchester

Excellent opportunity for new or established researchers in biological rhythms and circadian biology for lecturer/ senior lecturer (assistant/ associate professor equivalent) positions at the University of Manchester.

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Really enjoyed San Francisco this week for ICAN 2025 and a bit of touristing, but the time difference has been a right pain. #inbedat7

Was great to present my work at the ICAN 2025 meeting yesterday. Looking forward to another fun day today

A researcher is in the lab finding treatments for lung conditions.

You can play your part in helping to drive life-changing research to help people with lung conditions this summer.

We can't help to fund new treatments without your amazing help.

Find out how you can donate here: www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/life-changin...

Supporting UK Biobank Users Across the University The UK Biobank are due to arrive next door to the University in 2026 but activities have been under way for some time to strengthen ties between the two institutions. One of these is through the UoM…

The UK Biobank is set to arrive next to the University in 2026 so this is the ideal time to strengthen ties between the two institutions. Dr. Niels Muhlert from @fbmh-uom.bsky.social co-leads the UoM UK Biobank Users community which is doing just that.

Really nice visualisation of a lagged health outcome over decades (in contrast to the delays over days/weeks we typically see for acute infectious diseases like COVID)

Afternoon inhaler puff could improve asthma symptoms - study finds Researchers in Manchester say coordinating asthma medication to the body clock could bring benefits.

NEW: A study led by @hdurrington.bsky.social from @fbmh-uom.bsky.social found that taking an inhaler mid-afternoon may be the best way to keep asthma symptoms under control.

🩺 Take a closer look at the facts:
thorax.bmj.com/content/earl...

📖 Step into the full story:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Happy Rob running down a hill after a bitter slog of a fell run

Had a "great" time running the Herod Farm Fell Race in Charlesworth last night on a chilly April evening

The impact of dosage timing for inhaled corticosteroids in asthma: a randomised three-way crossover trial Background Asthma demonstrates a robust daily rhythm, with airflow obstruction and airway inflammation peaking overnight. Aligning the timing of drug administration with rhythms in disease (chronother...

Latest from our CfBT!
The impact of dosage timing for inhaled corticosteroids in asthma: a randomised three-way crossover trial thorax.bmj.com/content/earl...

The impact of dosage timing for inhaled corticosteroids in asthma: a randomised three-way crossover trial Background Asthma demonstrates a robust daily rhythm, with airflow obstruction and airway inflammation peaking overnight. Aligning the timing of drug administration with rhythms in disease (chronother...

Paper is published in Thorax

thorax.bmj.com/content/earl...

Afternoon inhaler puff could improve asthma symptoms - study finds Researchers in Manchester say coordinating asthma medication to the body clock could bring benefits.

Great to see Dr Ran Wang's research on chronotherapy for asthma being picked up by news outlets today. Was a great study to be a part of

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.

💬 @ukbiobank.bsky.social Deputy Chief Scientist Professor Martin Rutter on yesterday's data release 🔽

Was great to contribute (in a very small way) to this article. "Associations between light at night and mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis" authors.elsevier.com/c/1kqk8_17Gg...