Rate My Professor Tim Hales

Professor Timothy Hales serves as Chair of Anaesthesia in Neuroscience within the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee. He earned a BSc (Hons) in Physiology from King’s College London in 1986 and a PhD from the University of Dundee in 1990. Following postdoctoral training in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was appointed Assistant Professor at George Washington University in 1997, where he gained tenure in 2002. In 2006, he advanced to Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine and became Director of Research in Anesthesiology. Hales returned to the University of Dundee in 2009 as Professor of Anaesthesia and non-clinical head of the Division of Neuroscience. He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2011 and appointed Associate Dean for Research-Led Teaching in the School of Medicine in 2017. His research has been funded by grants from Tenovus Scotland, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, USA, and the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia, UK.

Hales’ research group investigates the mechanisms of action of anaesthetics and opioid analgesics, focusing on how these drugs modulate neuronal communication through ion channel modulation. Key areas include opioid-induced tolerance and hyperalgesia, GABAA receptor interactions with general anaesthetics, and voltage-activated Na+ channels as potential targets for anticancer medications in metastatic colon cancer cells. As principal investigator of the Consortium Against Pain InEquality (CAPE), he leads studies on the impact of adverse childhood experiences on chronic pain vulnerability and responses to opioids. Notable publications include “The impact of adverse childhood experiences on DNA methylation age: A systematic review and meta-analysis” (2026, Clinical Epigenetics), “Adverse childhood experiences and chronic pain in adults aged 86: findings from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936” (2025, Frontiers in Aging), and “The impact of early life adversity on pain and responses to opioids” (2022). Hales received the Dundee Difference Award for Positive Impact in 2024.