Saurabh S. Thosar, Ph.D, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences has been awarded the Early Clinical Investigator Award from the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon.

Adverse cardiovascular events such as heart attacks occur most commonly during the early morning hours in the general population. This is also the time when the diurnal rhythm in vascular reactivity is at its lowest point. The goal of this newly funded study is to determine the relative contributions of sleep, physical inactivity and internal circadian rhythms
in the attenuated vascular function during early morning hours.

Dr. Thosar is the principal investigator of this project and Dr. Steven A. Shea is his mentor. Colleagues who will be a part of this research include other institute researchers: Matthew Butler PhD, Michael Lasarev MS, Noal Clemons, Sally Roberts, Alec Berman, and sleep medicine physicians from OHSU (Chad Hagen MD) and the VA Portland Health Care System (Jonathan Emens MD). The work will be performed in a new facility recently built as part of the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Center at OHSU.