This afternoon event on Thursday, June 12 will bring together members of the Bay Area sleep research community alongside invited international guests. This will be an opportunity to hear from outstanding speakers, engage in discussion, and spark new collaborations within the sleep research community.

Featuring presentations on a range of topics from:

Liza Ashbrook, MD | “Familial natural short sleep and resilience”

Dr. Ashbrook is an Associate Professor of neurology at UCSF. She sees sleep medicine and neurology patients at UCSF and the San Francisco VA. She serves as the program director for the UCSF sleep medicine fellowship. Her research interests include clinical variations in circadian rhythms and sleep homeostasis.

Joey Wing-Yan Chan, MBChB | “Interface Of Circadian Rhythms And Mood Disorders – Implications On Treatment”

Dr. Joey Wing-Yan Chan is an Associate Professor of psychiatry at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She studies sleep and circadian rhythms in patients with mood disorders and leads clinical trials on light therapy in depression. She is a member of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) Chronotherapy Task Force, with expertise in sleep and circadian measurements, including actigraphy, pupillometry and melatonin assessment. Her recent research explores melanopsin-mediated pupillary response as a circadian marker in both affective disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Chan was recognized as a Distinguished Young Fellow by The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2022, highlighting her contributions to the field of psychiatry and sleep medicine.

Jamie M. Zeitzer, PhD | “Melatonin–Sleep Phase Angle Predicts Mortality in Women with Advanced Breast Cancer”

Dr. Zeitzer is a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Science as well as the co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Rhythms at Stanford University. He holds a dual position as a health science specialist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. For 30 years, Dr. Zeitzer has conducted research on sleep, circadian rhythms, and the brain’s response to light. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts on these topics and lectured internationally about novel ways to manipulate sleep and circadian rhythms. He obtained his PhD in neurobiology from Harvard University and his bachelor’s in biology from Vassar College. His most recent work has focused on optimizing lighting for human health, the role of wearables in sleep, and the interaction of sleep and circadian rhythms.

Sooyeon (Aly) Suh, PhD, DBSM | “Sleep reimagined: Insights from 60 million users tracked by a consumer wearable”

Sooyeon “Aly” Suh is a clinical psychology professor at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, Korea. Her research focuses on behavioral sleep medicine, including the epidemiology of insomnia and applying non-pharmacological interventions of insomnia for specific populations, such as PTSD patients, shift workers, and patients in primary care. Her secondary research interest includes incorporating digital technology into sleep research. She was a visiting professor at Stanford University at SHIP lab and Zeitzer circadian research lab, and is currently a consultant for Samsung Electronics on their sleep initiative with the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Ring. She has authored or co-authored several papers and chapters on many behavioral sleep medicine topics.

Pu-Yun Shih, PhD | “Circuit Insights into Stress-Resilient Behavior in Familial Natural Short Sleep Mice”

Dr. Shih is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ying-Hui Fu’s lab at UCSF. He earned his PhD in Dr. Yi-Ping Hsueh’s lab at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, where he investigated synaptic dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder using mouse models. Since joining Dr. Fu’s lab three years ago, he has explored the interplay between sleep and mental illness, with a focus on developing therapeutic approaches based on the Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS) model.

Jee Hyun Kim, MD, PhD | “Common Inadequate Sleep Health Behaviors and the impact of sleep hygiene on Insomnia Symptoms in a Non-clinical Population” and “Screening of OSA with facial photo”

Dr. Jee Hyun Kim is a Professor at Ewha Womans University College of Medicine and Director of the Sleep Center at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. From July 2006 to June 2007, Dr. Kim pursued postdoctoral research at the Stanford University Sleep Clinic under the mentorship of Dr. Christian Guilleminault. Her early research focused on adolescent sleep deprivation and its effects on health and wellbeing. To expand her work into chronobiology, she spent her sabbatical year at Harvard Medical School, as a member of Dr. Jeanne Duffy’s laboratory, where she contributed to studies on older adult shift workers. Her clinical practice encompasses a broad range of sleep disorders and epilepsy, with particular emphasis on sleep issues within neurology. She currently leads research focused on evaluating non-pharmacological interventions to improve sleep and alertness in rapidly rotating shift workers in real-world conditions.