Megan Acho, MD
Megan attended the University of Michigan, where she graduated with a degree in English Literature. She moved to New York City to study medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and graduated in 2013. Megan remained in New York at the Mount Sinai Hospital for her Internal Medicine residency, where she also served as a Chief Resident. She completed her fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 2020 as part of the Medical Education Track. During her fellowship, she also earned a Master’s Degree in Medical Education from the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan.
Megan has previously studied respiratory physiology related to invasive mechanical ventilation, as well as the ways in which complex concepts are taught to novice learners. She is interested in curriculum development related to pulmonary and sleep medicine. She is particularly interested in studying the relative confidence and competence of clinicians with regards to their ability to identify sleep-disordered breathing and treat these conditions using non-invasive ventilation.
Annie Lajoie, MD
Annie earned her MD from Laval University (Quebec, Canada) in 2014, where she then completed her Internal Medicine residency and her Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine training. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in clinical research in sleep medicine at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and is simultaneously completing a master’s degree (MSc.). in clinical epidemiology at Laval University.
Annie’s current research focuses on the cognitive consequences of obstructive sleep apnea, especially in patients with neurodegenerative diseases, and the impact of treatment. Her long-term research interests also include investigating the consequences of obstructive sleep apnea and its treatment on pulmonary hemodynamics, aligning with her previous research work in pulmonary vascular diseases. After the completion of her fellowship, she will join the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, where an academic position as a sleep-specialized pulmonologist and researcher awaits her.
Brandon Nokes, MD
Brandon is originally from Atlanta, GA. He lived there through graduate school before moving to Tucson, AZ where he was the lab manager for a translational breast cancer research lab at the University of Arizona. He then attended medical school at the University of Arizona, where he graduated as a member of the prestigious organization Alpha Omega Alpha. Brandon completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona, before completing his Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship program at UCSD. He is now the director of Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation at VA San Diego and a Pulm/Crit Physician at UCSD.
Brandon is working in the lab of Atul Malhotra where he investigates the mechanisms of flow limited breathing.
Neha Patel, MD
Neha earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Psychology from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She then earned her MD degree from the American University of Antigua School of Medicine and completed her residency in Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo, New York. She completed her pediatric pulmonology fellowship at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/ NY-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NY. She is now a physician and Assistant Professor at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore.
Neha’s research focuses on vascular endothelial activation in obstructive sleep apnea. Specifically, she is interested in investigating whether reduced complement inhibition promotes endothelial dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea and whether continuous positive airway pressure reverses these changes. Under the mentorship of Dr. Sanja Jelic, she plans to continue her work in understanding the underlying mechanisms that lead to the cardiovascular consequences in obstructive sleep apnea.
Moshe Prero, MD
Moshe earned his BA in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in 2009. He earned his MD from Ben Gurion University in 2013. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at the University of Kansas. He completing his fellowships in Sleep Medicine at Case Western Reserve University- University Hospitals, and Pediatric Pulmonology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the CWRU of School of Medicine.
Moshe’s research interests relate to respiratory control in children with neuromuscular disease. In particular, he is interested in understanding the impact of disease modifying therapies on the sleep and respiratory status of children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He is currently working on developing a registry that will assess the management of sleep and pulmonary issues in this population.
Sigfus Gunnlaugsson, MD
Sigfus was born and raised in Reykjavik, Iceland. He earned his MD at the University of Iceland and completed an internship and trained in Pediatrics at the National University Hospital of Iceland. He then completed his residency in Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut, his Pediatric Pulmonary fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and his Sleep Medicine fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is currently a pediatric pulmonologist and Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont.
His research is focused on the relationship of asthma and sleep-disordered breathing among children. He is currently working on projects studying how sleep-disordered breathing affects pediatric severe asthma, particularly how it relates to asthma control, lung function and exacerbations. He is also investigating what risk factors, disease mechanisms and inflammatory endotypes characterize children with overlap syndrome of asthma and sleep-disordered breathing within the Environmental Assessment of Sleep in Youth (EASY) study which is a prospective study of environmental contributors to pediatric sleep-disordered breathing. He plans to further study how these phenotypes relate to sleep and respiratory health outcomes in order to inform clinical practice for children with asthma and sleep-disordered breathing.
Daniel Ignatiuk, MD
Daniel earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Hartford in 2010. He then earned his MD from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine in 2016. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of Utah in 2019 his pediatric pulmonary fellowship (2022) and Sleep Medicine fellowship (2023) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s.
Daniel’s research interests include the innovative use of technology to improve sleep disordered breathing among pediatric patients. He is currently investigating how computational fluid dynamics, or the simulation of respiratory airflow in a 3D model, can play a role in better understanding the airways of pediatric patients as this contributes to the diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.
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Toshihiro Imamura, MD
Toshi was born and raised in Japan. He earned a medical degree from Nagasaki University then received his clinical training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care in Japan. After 5-year research experience at the University of California, San Diego, he completed Pediatric residency at SBH Healthy system and Pediatric Sleep Medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an appointment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a sleep medicine attending and T32 postdoctoral fellow.
Toshi’s research interests relate to abnormal sleep as pathophysiology in Autism Spectrum Disorder. He will analyze sleep on Autistic mice comprehensively in the ‘mouse sleep lab’ by using less invasive methods. His long-term career goal is to learn the function and role of sleep.
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