Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., Joins UAMS as Physiology & Biophysics Chair
| Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine.
She succeeds Michael Jennings, Ph.D., who is retiring after 25 years as chair.
Bellido was most recently a tenured professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine and an adjunct professor in the IU Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology. She was also on faculty in the Graduate School of IU and Purdue University.
Bellido was a member of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and researcher in the UAMS and VA Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases from 1993 to 2008, when she moved to IU.
“Dr. Bellido is a superb scientist and highly respected, internationally known leader in bone research,” said Christopher T. Westfall, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “She will bring great energy and a strong commitment to mentorship and faculty development to her new role at UAMS.”
Bellido holds multiple major grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as a Veterans Administration Merit Award. She serves on the Skeletal Biology Development and Disease Study Section for the NIH. Bellido is president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the ninth woman among 40 presidents in the society’s history and the first female president originally from Latin America.
Her research focuses on the mechanisms of signal transduction in bone cells with a particular emphasis on osteocyte biology in health and disease, bone cell apoptosis and mechanisms of action of bone active hormones.
Bellido received her doctorate in biochemistry in 1988 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 1990 at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Argentina.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###