Dr Archer received his BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Sussex and his PhD in Zoology from the University of Bristol, where he studied photoreceptor visual pigment absorbance spectra and colour vision polymorphisms. As a postdoctoral fellow at Bristol, he cloned some of the first vertebrate visual pigment opsin genes, before moving to Sardinia on an EU fellowship to help set up the International Marine Centre at Oristano, where he was Group Leader of Molecular Sensory Ecology. He then joined chronobiology researchers at Surrey, where he is now a Reader in Chronobiology. Dr Archer has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers and invited reviews, and edited two books.

1989-1991 MRC Research Assistant, Biochemistry, University of Bristol

1991 CNR Visiting Scientist, CNR Institute of Biophysics and Cybernetics, Genova, Italy

1991-1999 Senior Researcher and Group Leader, Molecular & Sensory Ecology Group, International Marine Centre, Oristano, Sardinia, Italy

1999-2002 BBSRC Research Associate, Neuroendocrinology Group, School of Biomedical & Life Sciences, University of Surrey

2002-2004 Research Fellow, School of Biomedical & Molecular Sciences, University of Surrey

2004-2007 Lecturer in Molecular Neuroscience, School of Biomedical & Molecular Sciences, University of Surrey

2007-2010 Senior Lecturer in Molecular Neuroscience, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey

2010-2014 Reader in Chronobiology, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey

2014 - Head of the Department of Biochemistry & Physiology, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey

Main research interests include individual differences in sleep and circadian rhythms and the genetics underlying these phenotypic differences. This pioneering research has been at the forefront of the field of the genetics of sleep and circadian rhythms (Archer, Sleep, 2003) and has identified significant associations between genetic variation and the timing of sleep and wake activity (including delayed sleep phase disorder), sleep homeostasis, vulnerability to sleep loss, cognitive performance and brain function (assessed by fMRI), cardiac function, and the phase angle of gene expression in peripheral leukocytes. During this research, techniques have been developed to study whole-genome expression in peripheral blood across a time series and this has led to significant findings in the effects of sleep-wake, sleep deprivation, and mistimed sleep on the regulation of gene expression (Archer et al., Sleep, 2008; Möller-Levet, Archer et al, PNAS, 2013; Archer et al, PNAS, 2014). Transgenic humanised animal models have also been developed to further investigate these mechanisms (Hasan et al., FASEB, 2014).

Muto V, Jaspar M, Meyer C, Kusse C, Chellappa SL, Degueldre C, Balteau E, Shaffii-Le Bourdiec A, Luxen A, Middleton B, Archer SN, Phillips C, Collette F, Vandewalle G, Dijk D-J, Maquet P. (2016) 'Local modulation of human brain responses by circadian rhythmicity and sleep debt'. SCIENCE, 353 (6300), pp. 687-690. doi: 10.1126/science.aad2993 Laing EE, Johnston JD, Möller-Levet CS, Bucca G, Smith CP, Dijk D-J, Archer SN. (2015) 'Exploiting human and mouse transcriptomic data: Identification of circadian genes and pathways influencing health'. BioEssays, doi: 10.1002/bies.201400193 Archer SN, Laing EE, Möller-Levet CS, van der Veen DR, Bucca G, Lazar AS, Santhi N, Slak A, Kabiljo R, von Schantz M, Smith CP, Dijk DJ. (2014) 'Mistimed sleep disrupts circadian regulation of the human transcriptome.'. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1316335111