Take a breath. The air up here is clean and cold. But at 8,700 feet, it’s also short on oxygen — carrying nearly 30 percent less than at sea level.

Telluride’s thin air makes for sick tourists, huffing hikers and locals who don’t sleep well. But because the region is also home to one of the top experts in high altitude medicine, it also makes for the perfect place for a research and treatment facility.

Which is exactly what’s going down. The Telluride Institute of Altitude Medicine, which opened its doors this summer, is in full swing, with world-renowned altitude doctor Peter Hackett at the helm.

“It’s going to help put Telluride on the map,” Hackett said, noting that although there are other altitude medicine research centers, this one is actually at a lofty elevation. “Nobody else is really doing this.”

The Institute is located in a modest two-room space in the basement of the Telluride Medical Center. Right now it’s just a couple computers, rolling chairs, books, documents and one high-tech pulmonary function machine. But the office is about to be renovated, more research machines are on the way, and Hackett intends for the Institute to grow with the Telluride Medical Center, which is working on building a new facility.

Despite its small space, the institute is humming with activity. Hackett, along with assistant Laurel Hastings and Dr. Jenny Hargrove, a recent transplant from Stanford who is here to work intensively with Hackett for two years, have their hands full with patients, education and research.

Telluride, it turns out, is a trove of opportunities for researching and treating altitude-related sicknesses. From helping people acclimatize to studying the role genetics play in altitude sickness and networking with other top doctors in the field, Hackett has plenty to keep him occupied.

The concept for the institute really got its start in 2005, when the Telluride Foundation commissioned consultants to ascertain the region’s health needs. One of the main conclusions drawn was that Telluride is home to two unique traits: its altitude, and its Dr. Hackett, an undisputed pioneer in high-altitude medicine.

The Hospital District board of directors agreed, provided some start-up money, and the institute opened its doors this summer.

Hackett’s goals include treating people affected by the altitude and educating the public on how to better acclimatize, but what is perhaps the most exciting are his plans for research.

He wants to explore the ways altitude affects the growth and development of children, and why babies born up here have low birth weights. He wants to do sleep studies to find out why high altitude commonly impairs sleep, research what predisposes people to altitude sickness, and find out how elevation affects aging.

Telluride residents, Hackett says, represent uncharted territory, because unlike the Nepalese, we have not adapted over generations to living at altitude. Our bodies are fairly new to the thin air.

“That population has never been studied,” he said.

For this end, the institute is getting a treadmill to study people exercising, an ultrasound machine to monitor heart activity and equipment to test people sleeping.

In addition, the staff is gathering information in an attempt to pinpoint the impacts of the altitude on Telluride’s economy. They are circulating surveys to visitors asking if they were affected during their stay, and if it prevented them from going out to eat or shop, or return to town.

Telluride historically has a tough time drawing tourists back, and Hackett thinks “one of the reasons people don’t come back is the altitude.”

Ultimately, Hackett wants use his findings to help people live more comfortably — thrive, even — at 8,700 feet.

Gordon Reichard, administrator of the Telluride Medical Center, said that enough people are affected by altitude that it can be a quality of life issue, and Hackett’s work is “vital.”

“What we’re hearing is that people have gone through the testing and have got diagnoses have been extremely grateful,” Reichard said.

Hackett, who ran the emergency room at the medical center for seven years before the institute opened, has done pioneering altitude medicine work on Denali, Everest and Telluride since 1976. His work has helped broaden the understanding of health and altitude.

“You Google anything on altitude medicine and his name comes up,” said Hargrove, who specializes in wilderness health with an emphasis on altitude. “When I first met him, I was a little starstruck.”