The goal of this project is to understand the relationships among acculturative stress, poorer sleep and circadian health, and cognitive function in zeroth-gen older Chinese immigrants who have immigrated to the US primarily to reunite with their adult Children. This project will establish a cohort of 100 older Chinese immigrants, aged 65 and above. Participants will undergo comprehensive assessments, including immigrant history, acculturative stress, and cognitive performance evaluations. Sleep and circadian rhythms will be measured using actigraphy, complemented by sleep diaries and validated questionnaires.

Sponsor

National Institute on Aging

Period 2026–2028

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.

The major goal is to develop educational and outreach materials for the dissemination of sleep knowledge in Asian Americans in Massachusetts. We will also develop culturally-relevant materials for healthcare providers.

Sponsor

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Period 2026–2027

• PI: Chenlu Gao, Ph.D.
• Co-I: Peng Li, Ph.D., Lei Gao, MBBS

This project is made available by a generous gift from a company. The fund will help the PI pursue a prior unfunded research direction to improve the accuracy of sleep detection from ambulatory wearables.

Sponsor

Industrial Gift

Period 2024–

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.

This start-up package is established for the PI to successfully initiate his independent research program at MGH. The funding serves to facilitate the expeditious start-up of the research lab, including the support of reasonable expenses such as effort and the PI and other personnel as well as materials and supplies.

Sponsor

MGH Anesthesiology

Period 2023–

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.

The BRI Fund to Sustain Research Excellence (FSRE) will provide support to allow the team to prepare more compelling preliminary results to boost the success of a resubmission of an R01 application that will evaluate circadian rest-activity rhythms (CRAR), the influence of menopause on CRAR, and the association of CRAR with cognition in women living with HIV (WLH) and HIV seronegative women.

Sponsor

Brigham Research Institute

Period 2023–2024

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.

This project will test whether actigraphy-measured napping is cross-sectionally associated with cognition and prospectively associated with incident dementia/AD in a sample of ~99,000 middle- to older-aged participants.

Sponsor

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Period 2023

• PI: Chenlu Gao, Ph.D.
• Mentor: Peng Li, Ph.D., Kun Hu, Ph.D.

The proposed study will address two aims: (1) To investigate the relationship of timing and irregularity of daytime naps with longitudinal cognitive decline, and AD; and (2) To determine whether timing and irregularity of daytime naps interact with genetic risks of AD to influence the trajectory of cognitive change and incident Alzheimer’s dementia

Sponsor

Alzheimer's Association

Period 2022–2025

• PI: Chenlu Gao, Ph.D.
• Mentor: Peng Li, Ph.D., Kun Hu, Ph.D., David A. Bennett, MD

The goal of this project is to characterize the circadian patterns in PLWH using a novel data adaptive tool for analyzing rest activity data, examine the association between circadian variations and cognition in PLWH, and explore the potential mechanisms.

Sponsor

HIV & Aging Consortium

Period 2021–2022

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.
• Co-I: Kun Hu, Ph.D., Monty Montano, Ph.D.

The goal of this project is to determine the role of circadian regulation in HIV-associated cognitive impairment.

Sponsor

Harvard University Center for AIDS Research

Period 2021–2022

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.
• Mentor: Kun Hu, Ph.D., Monty Montano, Ph.D.

The goal of this project is to determine the roles of circadian dysregulation and autonomic dysfunction in the development/progression of AD utilizing novel circadian and autonomic measures derived from nonlinear analyses.

Sponsor

BrightFocus Foundation

Period 2020–2023

• PI: Peng Li, Ph.D.
• Co-I: Lei Gao, MBBS, Kun Hu, Ph.D.