Skip nav
PeoriaQuad CitiesRockfordUrbana Advancing Nursing Leadership College DirectoryContact UsCollege of Nursing Home
UIC - University of Illinois at ChicagoCollege of Nursing
 
   
   
 

David W. Carley, PhD

Professor
Department of Biobehavioral Health Science

Director, Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research

NURS 754
UIC College of Nursing
845 South Damen Avenue (MC 802)
Chicago, IL 60612-7350

Phone: 312.996.3827
Email: dwcarley@uic.edu

Dr. Carley is professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Science and director of the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research; he has been a member of the faculty since 2006.

Research / Discovery
Dr. Carley, an internationally recognized expert in sleep and its disorders, is Director of the UIC Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research. The Center's mission is to conduct important basic, clinical and biobehavioral research for improving, preserving or promoting health through good sleep. These aims are addressed through research into sleep and sleep-related disorders; education of outstanding young scientists, clinical practitioners, patients and the general public; and development of new technologies relevant to the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders. Dr. Carley's personal research focuses on the neurobiology of sleep and breathing, with long-range goals aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of sleep-disordered breathing (e.g., sleep apnea syndrome). He also works toward improved diagnostic and therapeutic options for these clinical disorders. Professorially, he conducts basic animal investigations to identify and characterize the neural networks responsible for modifying the regulation of breathing patterns in differing sleep/wake states. These studies also aim to identify specific derangements of the nervous system that may lead to clinical disorders such as sleep apnea syndrome. In collaboration with Miodrag Radulovacki, Professor of Pharmacology, Dr. Carley has developed an animal model of sleep-disordered breathing and is using this model to test putative drug treatments for sleep apnea. UIC has licensed rights to Dr. Carley's discoveries to three companies, including one start-up company created specifically to develop and commercialize his inventions. These partnerships already have led to multiple promising clinical trials led by Dr. Carley and published in top-caliber peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Carley also investigates the pathophysiology of sleep-disordered breathing in human studies involving healthy control volunteers and patients with sleep apnea syndrome.

Teaching / Learning
Dr. Carley lectures in physiology, pharmacology, and engineering courses each semester. Outreach education is an important activity of the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research. As director, Dr. Carley oversees ongoing production of the "Eye Opener" newsletter for patients with sleep disorders and their families. He also serves as program chair and supervises the triennial conference "Life of the Sleepy Person," which gathers an internationally acclaimed panel of experts to provide state-of-the-art presentations of science and clinical guidelines relevant to sleep and its disorders. These presentations are geared for patients and families, practitioners, and researchers alike.

Service / Practice
Dr. Carley actively contributes to the leadership of the American Thoracic Society, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. He has served multiple terms on the Long-Range Planning Committee and Communications Committee of the Assembly on Respiratory Neurobiology & Sleep and chaired the Information Systems Committee of the American Thoracic Society. Additionally, Dr. Carley has been an invited participant of numerous consensus conferences convened by the American Thoracic Society, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other organizations. He has served multiple terms on the editorial board of the American Thoracic Society and the Journal of Applied Physiology. He also serves as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation, and the American Heart Association, among others. Dr. Carley has been an active member of the clinical faculty of the UIC Center for Sleep and Ventilatory Disorders, working as a clinical polysomnographer. As Director of the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research, he also oversees facilitation of support groups for patients with narcolepsy and with sleep apnea syndrome.

Current Research Projects:

Web Site