Season 6 | Episode 23

DR. DANNY J. ECKERT, GUEST

In this episode of Talking Sleep, host Dr. Seema Khosla welcomes Danny J. Eckert, PhD, a sleep and respiratory physiologist and professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. As the director of the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health, he discusses his groundbreaking work on OSA endotyping and the PALM classification system (Pcrit, Arousal threshold, Loop gain, and Muscle recovery). Dr. Eckert is a leading expert in his field and the recipient of the 2023 European Respiratory Society Gold Medal in Sleep-Disordered Breathing.

Discover why 70% of OSA patients have non-anatomical causes and how understanding these distinct endotypes can revolutionize treatment approaches. The conversation delves into practical applications for clinical settings, examining the roles of obesity and nasal obstruction in sleep apnea while discussing targeted therapeutic strategies, including GABAergic medications.

Danny J. Eckert, BAppl Sci, BSc (Hons), PhD, FAASM is a Mathew Flinders Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia leadership fellow and a lead investigator at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston (part-time). He serves as director of the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health where he leads a comprehensive basic sciences and translational research program comprised of >70 multidisciplinary sleep researchers. His research focuses on identification of the causes of sleep apnea, optimization of existing therapies, and development of new tailored therapies. He is most well-known for his pioneering respiratory endo-phenotyping work which has led to a new precision medicine therapeutic framework to understand and treat OSA and for his research on novel pharmacotherapy. He has published >215 articles in the leading sleep/respiratory medicine and other cross-disciplinary/general medical journals. His previous appointments include professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and principal research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) in Syndey where he retains affiliate appointments. 

Resources

  1. Bosi M, De Vito A, Eckert D, Steier J, Kotecha B, Vicini C, Poletti V. Qualitative Phenotyping of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Its Clinical Usefulness for the Sleep Specialist. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Mar 20;17(6):2058. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062058
  2. Wang D, Martins RT, Rowsell L, Wong KK, Yee BJ, Grunstein RR, Eckert DJ. Comparison of Awake Respiratory Control Versus Sleep Obstructive Sleep Apnea Endotypes. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2024 Oct 10. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00138.2024. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 3938828. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00138.2024