Top Sleep Researcher Recruited to Washington State University Spokane

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University today introduced Gregory Belenky, M.D., to the community as the new director of a sleep research initiative created in partnership with the Spokane Alliance for Medical Research. 

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt joined university leaders to announce $3.5 million in grant funds from the Department of Defense that will support Dr. Belenky’s work. The grant funds will support applied research at WSU Spokane and will help link fundamental research into brain structures and sleep conducted at WSU’s Pullman campus with the clinical base of practitioners and patients in Spokane.

The funding is in addition to an initial $50,000 earmark from the Department of Labor, $20,000 from the Inland Northwest Technology and Education Center and a $1.5 million earmark from the Department of Defense already committed to the effort.

WSU Provost Robert C. Bates said, “As with our announcement in January of the Institute for Shock Physics work and its extension of an applied lab in Spokane, today provides a perfect demonstration of what we mean when we say that WSU is co-located in Pullman and Spokane. We have world-class fundamental science already being conducted in Pullman, and this funding increases our capacity to develop another translational and applied research program in Spokane to enhance WSU’s contributions to the state and beyond.”

The announcement marks the first phase in the development of the Spokane Alliance for Medical Research, a partnership created to enable competitively funded biomedical research in the Spokane region. The alliance is a collaboration between private and state colleges and universities, medical health service and research centers, and public and private biotechnology research and development centers and institutes in Spokane and the Inland Northwest.

Research facilitated by the SAMR is intended to enhance ongoing clinical programs in the Spokane medical community, to provide research partnership opportunities for Spokane clinicians, to contribute to an enhanced reputation for these programs and to provide opportunities for economic development in the Spokane region. The SAMR builds upon strong, competitively funded, fundamental research programs at universities and research institutions in the Northwest. WSU is a partner in the SAMR, and WSU Spokane is home to a number of health sciences programs in research, teaching and service.

Tony Bonanzino, chair of the SAMR executive committee and president and CEO of Hollister-Stier Laboratories, LLC, said, “We are here to celebrate an important day for Spokane and for the SAMR. The importance of this strategic partnership for the region and the nation is reflected in the success of efforts to obtain earmarked federal funding. That investment will pay off in competitively funded research to come.”

Dennis Dyck, associate dean for research at WSU Spokane and coordinator of the SAMR, said, “The Spokane Alliance for Medical Research will build a number of centers of excellence over time. The key to its success is having a strong initiative at its core, and in sleep research, we have that. Down the road, we will look at areas such as neuroscience, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and others for development.”

Belenky said, “This is a magnificent opportunity to integrate the excellent basic science work in sleep being done at WSU Pullman with the superb clinical services in sleep medicine in Spokane.” He presented an overview of his work on the relationship of sleep to performance in normal and clinical populations going about their everyday lives, an area that as yet is studied by only four other research laboratories in the nation.

With more than $175 million in annual research expenditures, WSU was recognized by US News & World Report as one of the top 50 public research universities in the nation. As part of the university’s extensive research portfolio, researchers examine health science and other issues ranging from infectious diseases, genomics, safe food, environmental and natural resource sciences, power system security and diabetes through the use of state-of-the-art laboratories, clinical studies and community partnerships.

Web sites:

News release on event to introduce Gregory Belenky: http://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=4674

Gregory Belenky biography (PDF): http://www.spokane.wsu.edu/News&Events/content/BelenkyBio2004.pdf

Sleep Research Initiative overview (PDF): http://www.spokane.wsu.edu/News&Events/content/SAMR_SleepResearchInitiative2004.pdf

Sleep research at WSU: James Krueger: www.vetmed.wsu.edu/research_vcapp/krueger/krueger.asp

WSU Office of Research: www.research.wsu.edu

WSU Spokane Research Programs: www.spokane.wsu.edu/research&service/index.asp

Spokane Alliance for Medical Research: www.spokanemedicalresearch.org