By Merin C. MacDonald | Date published: September 18, 2024

Honghuang Lin Awarded Funding to Study Digital Sleep Biomarkers to Reduce Burden of Cardiovascular Disease 

Sleep is typically when the cardiovascular system has time for rest and recovery, but poor sleep has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.  

Honghuang Lin, PhD, professor of medicine in the Division of Health Systems Science, Clinical Informatics Section, and a co-director in the Program in Digital Medicine, has received funding from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study how poor sleep quality impacts cardiac health.  

Investigators will utilize the longitudinal collection of objective sleep and cardiovascular health measures from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES), which includes approximately 2,800 participants who have had 3 cycles of an overnight sleep study since 2011. They will look at the impact of sleep apnea on cardiac aging over time and identify specific sleep biomarkers related to cardiac health.  

The long-term goal is to be able to use sleep-targeted treatment as a way to preserve cardiac function and help prevent deterioration associated with aging.