Omonigho M. Bubu, MD, MPH, PhD

I am the Director of the Aging Research in Sleep Equity & Dementia Prevention (ARISE-DP) program; Associate Clinical Core Leader, NYU Alzheimer Disease Research Center (NYU ADRC); Core Investigator, NYU Institute of Excellence in Health Equity; and a physician scientist with expertise in sleep, aging, and dementia research. My training reveals a commitment to an interdisciplinary, multilevel approach aiming to understand cognitive health in elderly populations. My medical and residency training provided me with knowledge of basic pathophysiological and biochemical mechanisms of neurological diseases affecting cognition. My Masters’ in Public Health provided me with research experiences of being under the tutelage of renowned scientists at Emory and the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), where I began to establish a line of empirical inquiry to understand health behaviors as risk factors for AD. My PhD training in neuro-epidemiology, at University of South Florida (USF) and postdoctoral fellowship training at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the Department of Population Health aided in developing my scientific aptitude in sleep, cardiometabolic risk and cognition in older adults.

I have collaborated with experts in the field, first as student, a trainee, co-investigator and now recipient on intramural, foundation and NIH funded grants. Currently I have three active NIH funding including NIA K23AG068534, R01AG082278 and RF1AG083975; and 2 foundational awards including BrightFocus funded ADR #A2022033S and an Alzheimer’s Association funded AARG-D-21-848397. My NIA K23 examines the mediating role of slow wave sleep and vascular risk factors on Alzheimer Disease related disparity between African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. The R01 is using a health disparity research framework to examine mechanisms linking obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with higher Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk in older Blacks/African Americans. The RF1 examines the treatment of OSA on sleep dependent memory and blood-based biomarkers in Blacks. The BrightFocus award is examining mechanisms of racial differences in the relationship between Obstructive Sleep Apnea and in vivo tau deposition in the context of amyloid burden. The Alzheimer’s Association grant is investigating race specific regional tau deposition and role of obstructive sleep apnea.

These awards have led to findings with significant contributions that serve as a critical step in the continuum of research expected to consolidate our understanding of how sleep disorders, changes in rest-activity patterns, and sleep-wake cycles can be utilized as predictive and preventive tools to identify and treat individuals with AD. One line of research that has been added to the literature consolidated the evidence of the association between sleep and AD and/or cognitive decline suggesting that approximately 15% of AD may be prevented should interventions be implemented to reduce sleep problems and disorders. We have also demonstrated that OSA severity is associated with the rate-of-change in AD pathology including amyloid and tau burden longitudinally across the spectrum of dementia. We also show that OSA acts in synergism with Aβ and with tau, and all three acting together result in synergistic neurodegenerative mechanisms especially as Aβ and tau accumulation becomes increasingly abnormal. My focus and logical extension to sleep health disparities and cognitive outcomes is also yielding important findings that will move the field of sleep and AD as it relates to minoritized populations.

Over the past 6 years, I have led the community-engaged research efforts in various NIH funded grants of my mentors and collaborators, and currently direct the NYU Sleep Disparity Workgroup that has built capacity to address sleep disparities in NYC, by engaging the community via non-traditional venues and practice-based settings. Through the ARISE-DP program, I support community organizations, providing community resources among minoritized communities and conduct health equity research targeting socio-structural determinants of health to provide tailored intervention, implementation, and community-led treatment and prevention strategies targeting stress, vascular risk and improving sleep quality as novel targets for reducing AD related disparities. In my ADRC role, I work in conjunction with the Clinical Core Leader to oversee the various core activities, supervise staff, train staff, review all materials for dissemination, and interact with other ADRC Cores, work to support related studies, and community partners. As Core Investigator Research Pillar at IEHE, I am assisting the IEHE Associate Director on the development of an infrastructure to support embedded pragmatic research conducted within learning health systems targeted at addressing health inequities across NYULH. Importantly, within IEHE, I am also facilitating the development of innovative large P and U grants designed to understand the drivers of health disparities in aging populations