Congratulations to Gregoris Orphanides (ESL 2021) for his first publication in an accredited journal.

​We are happy to congratulate Gregoris A. Orphanides ESL21 alumni for publishing his first article after submitting his paper for review while still studying at the English School.

A big achievement for Gregoris as he is one of the few people in the modern era to have a paper published before starting their university studies. More specifically Current Research in Physiology has published Gregoris' coauthored paper: “Rhythmicity in heart rate and its surges usher a special period of sleep, a likely home for PGO waves” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crphys.2022.02.003).

This paper was co-authored with Dr Andreas A. Ioannides and Dr Lichan Liu while working part-time at the Neuroscience Research Centre AAI Scientific Cultural Services (AAISCS). In this paper, rhythmic changes in the heart rate along with the accompanying increases in arousal are studied, leading to two new important findings. First, hints for a new putative sleep stage called “REM0”.  Secondly, one of the most promising pieces of evidence for identifying non-invasively the area within the brainstem which sends the “Long Lead Initial pulse” (LLIP) for Ponto-Geniculo-Occipital (PGO).

This important article was the outcome of research Gregoris was conducting in Neuroscience at AAISCS directed by, Professor Dr Andreas A. Ioannides, in the last two years while being a student at the English of Nicosia. His involvement in research at AAISCS originally started with a summer internship which developed into getting the status of Junior Researcher participating in various research projects undertaken by AAISCS.

We are proud of Gregoris and we wish him good luck in all his future endeavours.