Award recognizes outstanding research presented at the SLEEP annual meeting

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine will recognize the recipient of the 2022 Trainee Investigator Award, Dr. Catherine Heinzinger, during the AASM annual membership meeting, held June 6 in conjunction with SLEEP 2022. Three individuals will receive honorable mention.

The award program is open to AASM student, postdoctoral fellow and resident members who present an abstract at the SLEEP meeting. Each applicant’s abstract was blinded and reviewed by the AASM Education Committee, and the abstracts with the highest scores were selected for recognition. The 2022 recipients were determined from among 48 applicants.

The winner will receive a $1,000 award, and an award of $500 will be given to each of the honorable mention recipients. Their abstracts are available in the SLEEP 2022 abstract supplement. SLEEP 2022, the 36th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 4-8.

Trainee Investigator Award Recipient
Dr. Catherine Heinzinger

Cleveland Clinic
“Sleep-related hypoxemia association with incident atrial fibrillation in a clinic-based cohort”

Dr. Catherine Heinzinger is a licensed clinical practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute Sleep Disorders Center, a T32 scholar on the Supporting Multidisciplinary Achievement in Respiratory Research Training (SMARRT) grant at the Cleveland Clinic, and a master’s student in the Clinical Research Scholars Program at Case Western Reserve University. She is board-certified in family medicine and sleep medicine. Heinzinger’s research interests are electrophysiological and cardiovascular consequences of dysfunctional sleep pathophysiology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Reena Mehra, she is investigating the longitudinal relationships of sleep-disordered breathing and sleep architectural disruption with incident atrial fibrillation and stroke. Her next career development steps are to continue coursework in biostatistics and epidemiology, increase her publication record, and attain independent funding.

Honorable Mentions
Katie Cederberg, Ph.D.

Stanford University
“Proteomic approach for understanding the mechanisms of periodic limb movements and restless legs syndrome”

Katie Cederberg has a doctorate in rehabilitation science and is currently a T32 scholar in the Mignot Lab at Stanford University. Her primary research interests focus on studying the efficacy and effectiveness of exercise for managing symptoms of restless legs syndrome and co-occurring sleep conditions. Her long-term goal is to identify the appropriate exercise stimulus for maximizing the benefit of exercise and to develop prescriptive exercise parameters specifically for managing symptoms of RLS.

Matthew Lehrer, Ph.D.

University of Pittsburgh
“Comparing sleep and homeostatic sleep drive between retired night shift workers and retired day workers”

Matthew Lehrer has a doctorate in health behavior and health education, nutritional sciences, and quantitative methods and recently completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in the T32 Translational Research Training in Sleep Medicine program. He is currently an assistant professor of psychiatry and investigates the consequences of long-term sleep and circadian disruption on biological and cognitive aging. Lehrer’s work is supported by an NIA Career Development Award to study brain bioenergetics and Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration and cognitive function in retired night shift workers.

Greg Roussett, Ph.D.

University of California San Francisco
“Does discrimination moderate the relationship between insomnia and telomere length in older adults from three racial/ethnic groups?”

Greg Roussett is completing a doctorate in nursing at the University of California San Francisco. His research focuses on environmental social determinants by examining the effects of stigma and discrimination on sleep and health outcomes. He is also investigating the biopsychosocial factors that influence treatment response to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Roussett also is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and he provides general psychiatry services to adults, offering evidence-based pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.

Learn more about SLEEP 2022 at www.sleepmeeting.org.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with an award recipient or an AASM spokesperson, please contact the AASM at 630-737-9700 or media@aasm.org. Photos of the award recipients are available by request.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is advancing sleep care and enhancing sleep health to improve lives. The AASM has a combined membership of 11,000 accredited member sleep centers and individual members, including physicians, scientists and other health care professionals.