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Andrés Peña

Andrés Peña

Clinical Research Coordinator, Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC)

Biography

Andrés Peña, B.A., is a Clinical Research Coordinator at Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC), where he coordinates and manages pediatric sleep research studies examining links between sleep, cognition, depression, sleep apnea, PAP use, and type 1 diabetes. He provides oversight for over 100 ongoing research participants in longitudinal studies and manages IRB submissions while supervising research assistants and overseeing daily lab operations. Peña received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 2020.

Prior to his current position, Peña served as Research Coordinator at the University of California, Irvine Sleep and Cognition Lab from December 2021 to July 2024, where he developed research protocols, maintained IRB protocols using the Kuali Research Protocol system, and managed databases for sleep research studies. He previously worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the same lab from 2018 to 2021, where he gained experience in polysomnography and data analysis using MATLAB and R.

Peña has contributed to multiple peer-reviewed publications in sleep research, including studies on emotional memory, menstrual cycle effects on sleep and mood, and wearable technology for tracking physiological rhythms. He has supervised and mentored approximately 30 undergraduate students in laboratory research projects, training them in polysomnography application, data management, and research protocols.

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Education

  • B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Irvine, 2020
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Areas of Expertise

  • Sleep and Cognition
  • Polysomnography and EEG
  • Memory Consolidation Processes
  • Emotional Memory Assessment
  • Pediatric Sleep Disorders
  • Menstrual Cycle Physiology
  • Wearable Sensor Technology

Recent Publications

  • Zhang, J., Pena, A., Simon, K.C., Shuster, A., Sattari, N., de Zambotti, M., Baker, F., Mednick, S. C., “The role of dreams in sleep-dependent emotional memory assessment”, Scientific Reports, Nature, 2024.
  • Alzueta, E., Gombert-Labedens, M., Javitz, H., Yuksel, D., Perez-Amparan, E., Camacho, L., Kiss, O., de Zambotti, M., Sattari, N., Pena, A., Zhang, J., Shuster, A., Morehouse, A., Simon, K.C., Mednick, S., Baker, F., “Physiological and psychological characteristics of menstrual cycles in young and midlife individuals”, Journal of Biological Rhythms, vol. 39, no. 4, 2024.
  • Gombert-Labedens, M., Alzueta, E., Perez-Amparan, E., Yuksel, D., Kiss, O., de Zambotti, M., Simon, K.C., Zhang, J., Shuster, A., Morehouse, A., Pena, A., Mednick, S., Baker, F., “Using wearable skin temperature data to advance tracking and characterization of the menstrual cycle in a real world setting”, Journal of Biological Rhythms, 2024.
  • Zhang J., Pena A., Delano N., Sattari N., Shuster A.E., Baker F.C., Simon K., Mednick S.C., “Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget” (opens in new tab), Scientific Reports, vol. 14, 2024.
  • Onton J.A., Simon K.C., Morehouse A.B., Shuster A.E., Zhang J., Pena A.A., Mednick S.C., “Validation of spectral sleep scoring with polysomnography using forehead EEG device” (opens in new tab), Frontiers in Sleep, vol. 3, 2024.
  • Shuster, A. E., Simon, K. C., Zhang, J., Sattari, N., Pena, A., Alzueta, E., de Zambotti, M., Baker, F. C., Mednick, S. C., “Good Sleep is a Mood Buffer for Young Women During Menses” (opens in new tab), Sleep, vol. 46, 2023.
  • E. Aluzeta, M. Gombert, L. Camacho, E. Perez-Amparan, D. Yuksel, M. de Zambotti, K. Simon, N. Sattari, A. Shuster, A. Pena, S. Mednick, F. Baker, “Wearable-based Measures of Sleep Across the Menstrual Cycle in Healthy Women in the Reproductive Stage and Early Menopause”, 2023. Presented at SLEEP, Indianapolis, IN, June, 2023.
  • K.C. Simon, A. Shuster, J. Zhang, N. Sattari, A. Morehouse, A. Pena, E. Alzueta, M. de Zambotti, G. Clemenson, T. Pan, W. Shen, F. Baker, S. Mednick, “Navigation behaviors do not change by menstrual cycle phase”, 2023. Presented at Learning and Memory, Huntington Beach, CA, April, 2023.
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Contact Information

Email: aapena3@uci.edu

Phone: (949) 824-1354

Address: 5141 California Ave, Suite 200b, Rm 229, Irvine, CA 92617, Irvine, CA 92697-5100

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 2/18/2026.