Michael Lam, MD, PhD
Michael earned a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cell Biology from University of California, Berkeley in 2003. He then attended the University of California, San Diego where he earned a PhD in Biomedical Science in 2011 and a MD in 2014. He completed his residency in internal medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.
His is interested in studying the relationship of sleep, circadian biology and inflammatory diseases. In his Ph.D. training, he studied basic mechanisms of transcriptional regulation during inflammatory responses with Dr. Christopher Glass, focusing on understanding the role of Rev-Erb, a family of transcription factors best studied in circadian biology with unknown role in inflammation.
Priya Borker, MD
Priya earned her Bachelor's of Science in Pharmacology from the State University of New York, Stony Brook in 2010. She then earned her MD from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in 2014. She completed her residency in internal medicine and Sleep Medicine Clinical fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and then subsequently trained in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
She is interested in the natural history and progression of disease as well as the identification of patients most apt to benefit from therapy. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center she investigated the differences in ventilatory control instability (loop gain) among those with central and mixed sleep apnea, and the pathophysiology and phenotype of sleep disordered breathing with heart failure control. She is currently investigating how poor sleep affects immune function in people with and without HIV infection at the University of Pittsburgh.
Jason Ackrivo, MD, MSCE
Jason graduated from the College of New Jersey with a BS in Biology in 2007. He then attended Rutgers University, where he earned his MD in 2011. He completed his residency at Boston University and Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
During his residency at Boston University, he was intimately involved with designing the ventilator management for a new sedation interruption protocol. He is currently a graduate student within the Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (MSCE) program. His thesis serves as a foundation for a research career that seeks to improve nocturnal non-invasive ventilation management, specifically in the context of patients who have neuromuscular disease. Overall, his career goals are to become a physician scientist designing prospective trials aiming to improve the respiratory care of patients who require non-invasive ventilation.
Jennifer Newitt, MD
Jennifer attended Dartmouth College, where she earned a BA in geography in 2002. She earned a MD from Albany Medical College in 2012. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. She completed her Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center from 2019-2022.
She is interested in a historical study that analyzes the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index data collected from a large international database of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy to identify relationships between disordered sleep and progression of disease that she can evaluate further with more in-depth prospective studies. She is also interested in a collaboration with an occupational therapist studying the effects of disordered sleep on functional movements.
Jeremy Orr, MD
Jeremy earned a BS in biological sciences from the University of Southern California in 2004 and a MD from Washington University in 2008. He completed his residency in internal medicine at University of California, Los Angeles and Pulmonaryand Critical Care Medicine fellowship at University of California, San Diego. He is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor at University of California, San Diego.
The primary focus of his research is the pathogenesis of sleep disordered breathing among patients with chronic lung and heart disease. He is particularly interested in control of breathing, as it relates to the dynamics of respiratory and upper airway motor output. His overall research goals are to 1) better understand mechanisms that drive sleep disordered breathing in specific diseases, and 2) develop tools that allow clinicians to utilize physiological “endotypes” in order to personalize treatments.
Lucas Donovan, MD, MS
Lucas attended Case Western Reserve University, where he earned a BA in biochemistry in 2007 and a MD in 2011. He completed his residency and Fellowship in Sleep Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in internal medicine. He completed his Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep fellowship at the University of Washington. He is a Core Investigator at the Seattle-Denver HSR&D Center of Innovation, staff physician at VA Puget Sound, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington.
His overall career goal is to become a physician scientist focused on improving the health and quality of life of patients suffering from chronic lung disease and sleep disorders with a focus on Health Services research and implementation science. The research projects that will be the focus of his effort during the next two years pertain to the predictors and consequences of benzodiazepine use in individuals with comorbid COPD and PTSD.
Anna May, MD, MS
Anna earned her BS in chemistry and biology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 and MD from The Ohio State University in 2009. She completed her residency in internal medicine from MetroHealth Medical Center. She completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and a Masters in Clinical Investigation at Case Western Reserve University. She is currently an Associate Professor at Case Western University.
Her career interests are to work in an academic setting to elucidate relationships between sleep disorders, therapy, and co-morbidities with a particular interest in multidisciplinary and translational studies. Her current research interests include working on understanding relationships between sleep and cardiovascular disorders and finding patient-centered solutions for optimizing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) treatment adherence.