UAMS Myeloma Institute’s Barlogie Recognized with Lifetime Achievement Award by Israel Cancer Research Fund

By Ben Boulden

Bart Barlogie, M.D., Ph.D.

Barlogie is a UAMS College of Medicine distinguished professor of medicine and pathology and distinguished clinical scholar. He holds the Tommy May Chair in Oncology and is the founder and former director of UAMS Myeloma Institute.

His reputation has led patients from around the world to travel to UAMS to be treated at the institute. The Myeloma Institute is an international leader and treats more patients with multiple myeloma and related diseases than any other facility in the world. Barlogie chose to step down as director in June to focus on clinical care and research, concentrating on those patients who have a more adverse prognosis based on sophisticated molecular analyses, of which he was a leading developer.

Born in Germany, Barlogie earned his medical degree from Heidelberg University and a doctorate from Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research. After postgraduate training in Germany and at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, he came to UAMS, where he founded the multiple myeloma program in 1989.

The Israel Cancer Research Funded, founded in 1975, is the largest organization in North America devoted solely to raising money for cancer research in Israel. Gifts to the fund have provided about $52 million in funding to more than 2,100 research projects that have led to many advances in cancer treatment.

Also receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago Chapter of the ICRF was Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., PhD. distinguished research professor,

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Ciechanover won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. That discovery led to the development to the drug Velcade, which is used in treatment regimens at the Myeloma Institute.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a northwest Arkansas regional campus; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,890 students and 782 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS regional centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.