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Gregg McCord, an MS student with Chris Minson, serves as test subject for studies on temperature change and hypoxia |
The installation of a new “environmental chamber” will allow University of Oregon scientists to replicate an extreme range of environmental conditions in their quest to test and understand the human body’s response to everyday stresses.
The cardiovascular research tool is a 12-foot-square room capable of simulating altitude up to 18,000 feet, holding temperature constant at a set point between 14 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and controlling humidity anywhere from 10 to 95 percent. The chamber is so finely tuned that it can swing from the coldest to hottest setting in 30 minutes.
“The presence of the environmental chamber at the University of Oregon will assure the next generation of researchers is well versed in both cutting-edge molecular methods and in traditional integrative, exercise, and environmental physiology,” said John Halliwill, an assistant professor of human physiology. His research includes a special focus on sleep apnea which can set the stage for high blood pressure.
Halliwill co-directs the university’s Exercise and Environmental Physiology Laboratories with Chris Minson, an associate professor of human physiology and two-time recipient of the American Physiology Society’s Outstanding Young Investigator Award. “The chamber allows us to monitor minute changes in the vascular and respiratory systems of subjects both at rest and when exercising,” Minson explained. “It’s already opening up new realms for our research mission.”
A $250,000 Department of Defense grant and a $50,000 gift from Dave and Nancy Petrone of San Mateo, Calif. funded construction of the chamber. Major studies currently underway in the University of Oregon Department of Human Physiology are funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.
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