The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has selected a new director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR): Marishka K. Brown, PhD. Congress established the NCSDR in 1993 to coordinate sleep research throughout National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies.
Brown succeeds Michael Twery, PhD, who served as the NCSDR director since 2006 during which sleep and circadian research programs increased at NIH and new interagency coordination activities were initiated. Brown started her new position on Nov 23, 2020.
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Brown joined National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, positioned within the NHLBI, in 2016 and has directed a dynamic, diverse, and growing portfolio of sleep medicine and sleep disorders research.
In 2018, Brown led an interagency committee to organize a national conference highlighting advances in sleep and the health of women that was attended by hundreds of physicians, researchers, members of the public, and 1,2000 participants online. She has initiated and led new research programs, such as identifying abnormalities in circadian biology that are linked to heart, lung, and blood disorders, while coordinating NCSDR’s research with other NIH institutes to study how sleep impacts a range of conditions, from immune function and childhood development to early neurocognitive decline and social determinants of health.
Brown chairs the working group for national sleep health objectives in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2030 initiative and has dedicated her career to biomedical research that positively impacts health and safety for everyone.
