Grant & Award Recipients
The AASM Foundation prides itself on it’s investment in people. Over the past 25 years, the AASM Foundation has invested more than $30 million in funding career development, high-impact research, clinical training and community initiatives.
Congratulations to the recipients of our 2024 grant cycle.
2024 Bridge to Success Grant Recipients
Disruptions in circadian rhythms during human development are a common co-morbidity in neurodevelopmental disorders. However, little is known about how circadian sleep patterns first emerge. I hypothesize that the emergence of rhythmic behaviors is intimately tied to metabolic state. I will use Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the link between circadian sleep pattern emergence and metabolic state. This will provide insight into how developing circuits integrate metabolic cues to drive the emergence of rhythmic behavior.
For new parents, poor sleep predicts perinatal mood and anxiety disorder (PMAD) risk. PMADs consequently influence parenting; however, the neural mechanisms linking sleep, PMADs, and parenting are unknown. Our project will estimate the sleep of birthing parents and their 5-6-month-olds using week-long actigraphy/report, then assess PMAD symptoms, parent brain function (fMRI), and parenting behavior/infant development. We hypothesize that sleep impacts both PMADs and parenting by altering socioemotional neurobiology, thus being a modifiable early intervention target.
2024 Focused Projects Grant for Junior Investigators Recipients
While self-report screening measures for sleep disorders are abundant in the literature, a reliable, diagnostic tool is necessary for confidence in clinical sleep research as well as accurate and efficient triage and treatment of patients with sleep challenges. The Structured Clinical Interview for Sleep Disorders (SCISD) was psychometrically validated in 2018 based on proposed DSM-5 criteria to meet this need. To maintain its utility, the SCISD-Revised (SCISD-R) was introduced to be consistent with the most up-to-date recommendations. The study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SCISD-R using interviews collected from an ongoing study.
This project aims to explore the effect of a neuromodulation strategy, transcranial photobiomodulation (t-PBM), on sleepiness in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who are adherent to positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment, yet experience residual sleepiness. Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques, we aim to elucidate the neural mechanisms of t-PBM and its ability to mitigate sleepiness in OSA. We expect that t-PBM will decrease sleepiness in OSA, related to increases in brain blood flow after treatment. The outcome of this project can suggest a novel technique to decrease sleepiness and increase brain blood flow, serving as a potential modulator of sleepiness in OSA. The AASM funding will serve as a critical opportunity to fund pilot data for utilizing t-PBM in OSA.
Cardiac and sympathetic activation is significantly greater when respiratory events are associated with leg movement (i.e., respiratory-related leg movement, RRLM). This project will address a critical gap in understanding the relationship between RRLMs and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The overall objective of this proposal is to assess the relationship between an index of respiratory related leg movement (RRLMI) and adverse outcomes in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with a focus on cardiovascular disease (CVD).
2024 Focused Projects Grant for Junior Investigators: Management and Treatment of Sleep Apnea Recipient
This grant was made possible by ResMed
New obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) therapies are compared to existing treatments in terms of incremental cost vs. benefit, measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). This study aims to develop a method to calculate QALYs using an OSA-specific quality of life questionnaire, via an indirect approach called mapping. We hypothesize that a disease-specific measure of quality of life is more sensitive compared to the current standard in health economic evaluations, which consists of using generic instruments.
2024 Physician Scientist Training Grant Recipients
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent condition with major cardiometabolic sequelae. Hypoglossal nerve stimulator (HGNS) is a surgically implanted device for OSA with long-term effectiveness and high therapy adherence. However, literature is lacking on the cardiometabolic outcomes of HGNS. Our randomized, within-subject crossover trial will examine the effects of HGNS on energy balance and insulin resistance. The results bear important implications for a patient population vulnerable to high cardiometabolic risk.
Sleep is vital for recovery, yet hospitals neglect sleep. This study addresses the challenge of measuring and mitigating sleep disruptions in hospitalized patients by proposing surrogate sleep metrics derived from electronic health record documentation. Methods include analyzing objective sleep data and assessing associations between EHR-derived sleep variables, around-the-clock order defaults, and clinical outcomes. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of inpatient sleep and potential interventions to enhance sleep quality, benefiting patient outcomes and healthcare practices.
2024 Diversity Supplement Grant Recipient
Forty-three point five percent of World Trade Center responders demonstrate symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Responders with CRS symptoms report shorter sleep duration based on subjective measures impacted by reporting bias. To obtain objective measures, we use 2 weeks of actigraphy to determine sleep duration, its night-to-night variability, and sleep-wake timing regularity. We expect that WTC responders with CRS symptoms will have shorter and more variable sleep duration and decreased sleep-wake timing regularity.