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Omonigho Bubu, MD PhD MPH
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JAD profile

Associate Editor
Term Expiration:
12/31/2025
Affiliation(s):
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Areas of Interest:
sleep, Aging and Cognition; Epidemiology; Dementia; Alzheimer; Cardiovascular diseases and risk factors; Hearing
Biography & Research:
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.
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 Bright Focus 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.