SIESTA, Synergise, Integrate and Enhance Sleep Research to Transform Brain Ageing is an innovative program that encapsulates three multidisciplinary and integrated streams of research in older adults ‘at-risk’ for dementia:
- STREAM 1: Discover the pathophysiological mechanisms that link sleep disturbance with longitudinal cognitive trajectories, develop new measures of glymphatic clearance in humans, and determine the factors driving suboptimal waste removal. We will also elucidate the role of the brain’s locus coeruleus in sleep disturbance.
- STREAM 2: Extend existing clinical trials and develop novel therapeutics for sleep disturbance utilising our strengths in sleep disorder management, data analysis, neuropsychology, and biomarkers.
- STREAM 3: Improve screening, monitoring, and management of sleep disturbance in clinic and community settings by testing, validating, and implementing new digital health technologies.
SIESTA consists of a substantive multidisciplinary program that is working to truly innovate and provide rapid solutions and translation for sleep disturbance. SIESTA allows us to interconnect our clinical skills with our biomarker, imaging, and data science innovations, develop novel therapeutics, and validate, optimise, and integrate digital health technologies into the community.