Photo Gallery: New Sleep Center Makes Its Debut with Ribbon-Cutting, Tours

Celebrants gather in the UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson plaza for a ribbon-cutting and open house for the Center for Sleep, Circadian Rhythm and Neuroscience Research's new digs courtesy of a $5 million construction grant from the National Institutes of Health.

With great fanfare, the renamed, relocated and rebuilt Center for Sleep, Circadian Rhythm and Neuroscience Research at the University of Arizona Health Sciences held a celebratory ribbon-cutting and tour of its new facilities in the basement of the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Previously, researchers conducted sleep and circadian research studies in leased space above a Tucson bar and grill. The new facility, built using a $5 million construction grant from the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director, gives investigators access to state-of-the-art technology to conduct innovative sleep and circadian rhythm research.

Commenting before the ribbon-cutting on Monday, May 15, were Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for the Health Sciences, and center director Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, who also is chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

“Sleep disorders, whether insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea, are among significant comorbidities to a host of chronic medical conditions, including chronic pain and diabetes, as well as various cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary and neurological ailments,” Dr. Parthasarathy said. “Besides enabling groundbreaking research, the center will enable training future generations of sleep and circadian researchers and clinicians. The PACCS division hosts the Sleep Medicine Fellowship, one of four pulmonology-related fellowships under its administration certified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education."

In addition to Drs. Dake and Parthasarathy, the college’s dean, Michael M.I. Abecassis, MD, MBA, participated in the ribbon-cutting. Several center investigators also took part, including Daniel Combs, MD (Department of Pediatrics); William D. "Scott" Killgore, PhD (Department of Psychiatry); Stuart F. Quan, MD (UArizona Professor Emeritus, prior PACCS division chief and the Gerald E. McGinnis Professor Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School); Michael Grandner, PhD (Psychiatry); and Patricia Haynes, PhD (UArizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health).

Other center research collaborators, members and staff were also in attendance along with individuals extramural to UArizona with a deep interest in sleep and circadian sciences. This included Ralph Banks, executive director, UArizona Engineering, Design & Construction, and Tom Gerbo, the Tucson architect who worked on designing the new center.

Among the 12,700-square-foot center’s many amenities are a high-tech control room with multiple monitors for observing study participants, an array of valves for controlling gasses in eight comfort-conscious sleep suites, and the ability to test blood and administer drugs remotely. In his opinion, said Dr. Quan, who helped push UArizona to the forefront of sleep medicine in his three decades as a faculty member, the facility is among the most advanced in the nation if not globally for sleep studies. He came to Tucson as a pulmonary fellow in 1979, left for Harvard in 2007, but remains on faculty here.

See below for photos of the ribbon-cutting and tours. Mouseover the images for captions and click them to see a larger version. For the full photo album from the event, see this link at the department’s Flickr webpage.

Factsheet for the Center for Sleep, Circadian Rhythm and Neuroscience Research at the UArizona Health Sciences
Video: Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research Grand Opening