UF endocrinologist Stacpoole wins Clinical Science Award
Pioneering research on the causes and treatment of metabolic disorders has earned University of Florida endocrinologist Peter W. Stacpoole, Ph.D., M.D., the UF College of Medicine Clinical Science Award for 2003.
Stacpoole, a professor of medicine and of biochemistry and molecular biology, is best known for his investigations of the chemical dichloroacetate, or DCA, which is used to treat lactic acidosis and diseases of the mitochondria, cell structures that produce the body’s energy supply.
Stacpoole has gained new insights into mitochondrial diseases involving abnormal carbohydrate or lipid metabolism, notably congenital lactic acidosis-a rare, a sometimes fatal hereditary condition in which the body fails to metabolize glucose effectively. His initial clinical study using DCA to treat congenital lactic acidosis was the first to test an intervention of any type for a metabolic mitochondrial disease. Further trials in human patients are under way.
In addition, Stacpoole and UF colleagues are developing preclinical studies of gene therapy as a possible treatment for genetic mitochondrial diseases. Using the apparently harmless adeno-associated virus as a gene-delivery vehicle, researchers plan to give corrective genes to patients.
“The work I do is highly collaborative,” said Stacpoole, who directs the UF General Clinical Research Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health. “Individuals at UF, as well as people in different states and different countries, have contributed fundamentally to whatever progress we’ve made with both DCA and understanding of mitochondrial diseases.”
In April, Stacpoole was one of 33 faculty members named UF Research Foundation professors for 2003-06. Last year, the Royal College of Physicians in London elected Stacpoole a distinguished fellow in recognition of his leadership in patient-oriented research and medical education.
A UF faculty member since 1980, he holds four patents, is chairman of an advisory committee for UF’s Advanced Postgraduate Program in Clinical Investigation, and has been course coordinator for M.D./Ph.D. candidates and for a Science of Clinical Research course he developed for junior faculty.
UF department of medicine Chairman Edward R. Block, M.D., said Stacpoole has a special gift.
“He is an incredible mentor and teacher for faculty and students who want to do clinical research,” said Block, who received the Clinical Science Award in 1997. “He’s devoted his life to it, all the way from working one-on-one with people to developing courses. To me, that’s perhaps even a bigger accomplishment than his research, the fact that he’s training the generation behind him.”
UF College of Medicine Dean C. Craig Tisher, M.D., presented the award to Stacpoole April 11 at the college’s Research Day faculty dinner at the Sheraton Gainesville Hotel. A committee of clinical researchers from the college selected Stacpoole from a field of nominees.