Yo-El Ju, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology
The COBRAS Human Core offers the following services:
- Actigraphy: This core supports wrist actigraphy studies, allowing long-term analysis of sleep and circadian rhythms in humans in their home environment. The core owns a number of actigraphs of multiple brands which can be loaned to investigators and used for various studies. A technician in the core will provide data download, cleaning, analysis of sleep variables (using associated software), and analysis of circadian parameters (using ClockLab or other software). Resources are available for more advanced analyses of actigraphy data. This core can collect concurrent data against polysomnography for device/method validation.
- Signal analysis: The core provides technical expertise in analysis of human polysomnography/EEG data. The core provides scoring of PSG data, signal processing expertise, and more sophisticated analytic methods such as machine learning. Data can be scored/analyzed on a fee-for-service basis.
- Sleep/Circadian biomarkers: This facility provides expertise and protocols for collection & analysis of various sleep and circadian biomarkers, including those from blood (transcriptomics, protein levels, cellular profiling), CSF (proteomics, metabolomics), saliva (melatonin, cortisol), urine, microbiome, and others. The core provides assays for common sleep biomarkers such as orexin, cortisol, and melatonin, and serves as a hub for development of novel omics approaches.
- Clinical sleep research support core: This core provides consultation on design of human sleep/circadian studies, as well as technical support with studies related to treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and other sleep disorders. The core provides equipment for home testing, links researchers with ongoing studies in the clinical Sleep Medicine Center, and provides access to coordinators and project managers with expertise in sleep and circadian research. Ultimately, this core will also serve as a data repository for studies performed in association with the Center.
- Human sleep lab: This core integrates with the CTRU Sleep Core to provide polysomnography, ambulatory sleep monitoring equipment, and staff to facilitate human inpatient and home sleep studies. It includes registered polysomnography technologists to perform and score studies, as well as temperature & light controlled rooms for sleep studies.