UAMS’ Stavros Manolagas, M.D., Ph.D., Named First Andreoli Chair

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK — Stavros C. Manolagas, M.D., Ph.D., today became the inaugural recipient of the Thomas E. Andreoli, M.D., M.A.C.P., Clinical Scholar Chair in Internal Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).


 


The Andreoli chair was established in 2005 with gifts from numerous friends and colleagues of Andreoli, distinguished professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the UAMS College of Medicine.


 


An endowed chair is the highest academic honor that can be bestowed by a university on its faculty. The first named chair was established in England in 1502, when Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, established the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge. An endowed chair at UAMS is supported with designated gifts of $1 million or more. A donor may name a chair in memory of a loved one or to honor a person’s accomplishments.


 


“It is fitting for Dr. Manolagas to be honored with the Andreoli Clinical Scholar Chair in Internal Medicine,” said UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D. “Both men are internationally recognized for their achievements in the field of internal medicine. Their accomplishments and the establishment of this chair will assist UAMS for years to come as we seek to attract outstanding faculty members in all areas of the university.”


 


A native of Greece, Manolagas is professor of internal medicine and director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at UAMS. He also is director of the Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases, vice chairman for research in the UAMS Department of Internal Medicine and chief of the Endocrinology Section at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.


 


In 1969, he received his medical degree from the University of Athens. His research fellowship at the University of Manchester, Manchester Royal Infirmary in England culminated with a doctorate in biochemistry/endocrinology in 1979.


 


That year, Manolagas joined the faculty of the University of California at San Diego where he stayed until being recruited to UAMS in 1993 by Andreoli, then chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine. Under Manolagas’ leadership, the UAMS Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism has grown from a faculty of five to 31 and from a budget of less than $50,000 to more than $5.8 million; the Osteoporosis Center also has become one of the largest research units of its kind in the United States with about 40 scientists and almost $50 million in extramural funding.


 


In 1999, with the help of UAMS BioVentures, a technology incubator, Manolagas founded Anabonix Inc., a biotechnology start-up company engaged in the development and commercialization of drugs for osteoporosis. The company currently operates in Cambridge, Mass., under the name Radius Health Inc. Manolagas serves on the scientific advisory board.


 


Andreoli received his medical degree from Georgetown University. After five years on the faculty of Duke University, he joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham followed by the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.


 


In 1988, he was named the Nolan Chair in Internal Medicine at UAMS, a position that he stepped down from in 2004. Andreoli has received 35 teaching awards and serves as editor-in-chief of Cecil Essentials of Medicine.


 


He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) in 2001 and holds the 2002-2003 George L. Ackerman Outstanding Faculty Award at UAMS. The Thomas E. Andreoli, M.D., Visiting Professor in Internal Medicine was endowed in the UAMS College of Medicine in 2003.


 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,320 students and 690 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 9,300 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the VA Medical Center. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.4 billion a year.