National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR)
Miranda Lim, MD, PhD
Email: lmir@ohsu.edu
Telephone: 503-220-8262 x57472
Current appointments:
Research Investigator, NCRAR
Staff Neurologist, Sleep Disorders Clinic, VA Portland Health Care System
Associate Professor, Departments of Neurology, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Medicine (Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care), and Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, Oregon Health & Science University
Research interests:
My research program focuses on how sleep modulates neuropathological and behavioral outcomes in neurological disorders across the lifespan, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and neurodegenerative disease. As a neuroscientist, I examine both rodents and human subjects in our studies and my laboratory is renowned for its translational research spanning preclinical to human studies. We have expertise in performing and analyzing sleep EEG recordings, quantitative EEG methodology including machine learning, and experimental studies using animal models of chronic stress and disease. My group has primary peer-reviewed publications in high impact broad topic journals including Nature, Science, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Science Translational Medicine, and Science Advances.
I currently lead both observational and interventional studies on Veterans with TBI and sleep disorders. I am the PI on several active protocols and oversee data repositories containing over n=1200 Veterans with extensive demographic data, TBI/PTSD status, and symptom surveys, and the majority of whom have undergone overnight polysomnography. Two of these studies are funded by the Department of Defense to study sleep, chronic pain, and sensory sensitivity outcomes in Veterans with TBI. From these studies, we are interested in identifying novel mechanisms and approaches to treatment of chronic symptoms in Veterans with TBI.
October 2020 presentation: Sleep, chronic pain, and sensory sensitivity in TBI: From observation to intervention
Research projects (Current):
SmART-TBI: Supplemental Amino Acid Rehabilitative Therapy in TBI
Principal Investigator: Miranda Lim, MD, PhD
VA CSR&D
2021-2025
Photosensitivity and Pain in Complex TBI
Principal Investigator: Mary Heinricher, PhD (OHSU), Co-investigator: Miranda Lim, MD, PhD
DoD PH/TBI
2017-2022
Improving sleep, sleep-related outcomes, and biomarkers in TBI
Principal Investigator: Miranda Lim, MD, PhD
DoD CNRM
2018-2023
Selected research publications:
- Elliott JE, Opel RA, Pleshakov D, Chau AQ, Rachakonda T, Weymann KB, Lim MM (2019). Post-traumatic stress disorder, with and without comorbid traumatic brain injury, increases the prevalence of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in Veterans. SLEEP. Oct 7, ePub ahead of print. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsz237. PMID 31587047.
- Modarres MH, Weymann KB, Opel RA, Lim MM (2019). Strong correlation of novel sleep electroencephalography coherence markers with diagnosis and severity of PTSD. Scientific Reports. Mar 12;9(1):4247. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-38102-4. PMID: 30862872
- Jones CE, Opel RA, Kaiser ME, Quintana J, Nipper MA, Finn DA, Hammock EAD*, Lim MM* (2019). Early life sleep disruption alters the developmental trajectory of cortical parvalbumin and impairs social bonding in prairie voles. Science Advances. Jan 30;5(1):eaav5188. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav5188. eCollection 2019 Jan. PMID: 30729165
- Balba NM*, Elliott JE*, Weymann KB, Opel RA, Oken BS, Heinricher MM, Lim MM (2018). Sleep disturbances in Veterans: The impact of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 14(11): PMID: 30373686
- Elliott JE, Opel RA, Papesh M, Chau AQ, Weymann KB, Callahan M, Storzbach D, Lim MM (2018). Sleep disturbances in Veterans: Association with sensory sensitivity. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Jul 15;14(7):1177-1186. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7220. PMID: 29991430
- Opel RA, Christy A, Boespflug EL, Weymann KB, Case B, Pollock JM, Silbert LC, Lim MM (2018). Effects of traumatic brain injury on sleep and enlarged perivascular spaces. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. 2018 Aug 10:271678X18791632. doi: 10.1177/0271678X18791632. PMID: 30092696
- Elkind J*, Lim MM*, Johnson BN, Palmer CP, Putnam BJ, Kirschen MP, Cohen AS (2015). Efficacy, dosage and duration of action of branched chain amino acid therapy for traumatic brain injury. Frontiers in Neurology. 6:73. PMID 25870584. PMCID: PMC4378292. * denotes equally contributing first authors
- Lim MM, Elkind J, Xiong G, Galante R, Zhu JX, Zhang L, Lian J, Kuzma NN, Pack AI*, Cohen AS* (2013). Dietary therapy mitigates persistent wake deficits caused by mild traumatic brain injury. Science Translational Medicine. 5(215):215ra173. PMID:24337480. PMCID: PMC3951738. * denotes equally contributing senior authors
- Willie JT*, Lim MM*, Bennett RE, Azarion AA, Schwetye KE, Brody DL (2012). Controlled cortical impact traumatic brain injury acutely disrupts wakefulness and extracellular orexin dynamics as determined by intracerebral microdialysis in mice. Journal of Neurotrauma. 29(10):1908-21. PMID: 22607167. PMCID: PMC3390985. *denotes equally contributing first authors
- Kang JE, Lim MM, Bateman RJ, Lee JJ, Smyth LP, Cirrito JR, Fujiki N, Nishino S, Holtzman DM (2009). Amyloid-beta dynamics are regulated by orexin and the sleep-wake cycle. Science. 326(5955): 1005-7. PMID: 19779148. PMCID: PMC2789838.
For a full list of publications, please click here.
Selected recent presentations:
2021
- Harvard Sleep Grand Rounds monthly seminar series, virtual lecture. "Early life sleep and brain development: Lessons from the prairie vole about autism"
- Sleep Research Society Biannual Meeting, virtual lecture. "Early life sleep and brain development: Lessons from the prairie vole about autism"
2020
- University of Michigan, Dept of Neurology Grand Rounds, virtual lecture. "Sleep disturbances in TBI: From Bench to Bedside and Back"
- OHSU, Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Grand Rounds, virtual lecture. "Sleep disturbances in TBI: From Bench to Bedside"
- North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy (NAPS) Consortium, St Louis, MO. "Ultrahigh field imaging of N1 nigrasome at 7T in REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
2019
- VA Puget Sound, Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research Foundations Series. "Sleep disturbances in TBI: From Bench to Bedside"
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dept of Psychiatry and Shriver Center. "The function of early life sleep in development"
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Biomedical Engineering/Neuroscience Program Seminar Series. "Sleep disturbances in TBI: From Bench to Bedside"
- University of California, Irvine, Dept of Neurobiology and Behavior. "The function of early life sleep in development"
