Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, MD, MSC
Director, Child Health Research Institute and Vice-Chair for Research Department of Child Health
University of Missouri – Columbia (MU)
My research focus is both on mechanisms and biomarkers which mediate the strong correlation between sleep apnea and vascular dysfunction aiming to investigate the presence of divergent phenotypes of vascular dysfunction in children with similar sleep apnea severity. In addition, by using MRI techniques , I hope to define structural-functional associations accounting for the cognitive deficits and the role of exosomes as effector of cognitive morbidity through disruption of the blood brain barrier in children with different neurocognitive manifestations of similar sleep apnea severity.