Harvard Catalyst Profiles

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Peng Li, Ph.D.

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Biography
2016
2016 Partners Healthcare Innovation Discovery, Partners Healthcare (not Mass General Brigham)
2018
Trainee Professional Development Award, Society for Neuroscience
2019
Brigham Research Institute Microgrant Award, Brigham and Women's Hospital
2020
1st place of Club Hypnos Cup Data Blitz competition (virtual due to COVID19), Sleep Research Society
2020
Travel Award, the International Workshop on HIV & Aging (converted to fee waiver due to COVID 19)
2021
Young Investigators Research Forum Award, American Academy of Sleep Medicine
2022
Early Career Mentoring Award, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Medicine

Overview
My research has been focused on evaluating the relationship among sleep/circadian physiology, cardiovascular function, and cognitive aging. I also have extensive experience in nonlinear biomedical signal processing as a biomedical engineer and computational physiologist. For example, one of my early contributions is the development of distribution entropy and several of its variants to assess physiological complexity based on short-length signals. The new algorithm considers an integrated feature in the fluctuation patterns of the signal, which overcomes an important limitation of prior methods in the needs of sufficiently long data and allows a reliable assessment of complexity from short recordings.

My research in the recent 8 years has contributed to the understanding of sleep and circadian disturbances as early-stage manifestations or risk factors of AD. For example, my research demonstrates simultaneous degradations in cognition and sleep/circadian rhythms with advanced age and clarifies a bidirectional relationship between cognitive decline and circadian degradation in older human participants. A highlight of my recent discoveries in this field is the link between altered daytime napping and risk for AD, which opens a new research avenue to understand behavioral rhythms or sleep behaviors in dementia etiology and to design potential interventional strategies through consolidating sleep behaviors or sleep hygiene for cognitive benefits.

My research in the last 3 years has also been expanded to the study of physical and cognitive resilience in the context of sex/gender and racial minorities as well as people living with chronic inflammation burdens, who show a disproportionately higher burden of age-related comorbidities.

Research
The research activities and funding listed below are automatically derived from NIH ExPORTER and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing items. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
  1. (LI, PENG) Jun 1, 2023 - May 31, 2024
    Brigham Research Institute
    Circadian rest-activity rhythms and links with cognitive function in women aging with HIV
    Role: Principal Investigator
  2. 290-FP-22 (GAO, CHENLU) Jan 1, 2023 - Dec 31, 2023
    American Academy of Sleep Medicine
    Daytime napping and Alzheimer's disease in middle-to-older aged adults: Timing, irregularity, and interaction with genetic risks
    Role: Primary Mentor
  3. AARFD-22-928372 (GAO, CHENLU) Mar 1, 2022 - Feb 28, 2025
    Alzheimer's Association
    Timing and irregularity of daytime napping and Alzheimer’s disease
    Role: Primary Mentor
  4. UWSC12802 (LI, PENG) May 1, 2021 - Oct 31, 2022
    NIH/NIA
    Association between rest activity circadian rhythm and cognition in PLWH
    Role: Principal Investigator
  5. CFAR-BWH-21-1-LI (LI, PENG) Feb 1, 2021 - May 31, 2022
    Harvard University Center for AIDS Research
    Circadian disturbances and cognitive impairment in people living with HIV
    Role: Principal Investigator

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Bibliographic
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Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.