Dr. Christopher Kovacs

Dr. Christopher S. Kovacs's ground-breaking work in endocrinology at Memorial University of Newfoundland has earned him numerous awards. Most recently, in 2003 he received the Young Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Gold Medal Award in Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In 2002 he received the Antoni Nalecz Award from the Canadian Society for Endocrinology and Metabolism and the President's Award for Outstanding Research from Memorial University.

Dr. Kovacs main research is on calcium and bone metabolism during the reproductive time periods of pregnancy, lactation and fetal development. His lab is exploring the regulation of mineral transfer across the placenta in late gestation and the formation of the fetal skeleton. He uses genetically engineered mice to examine how skeletal and placental physiology is disrupted when a hormone or receptor of interest is deleted.

He is also studying how calcium is temporarily borrowed from the mother's skeleton during lactation (breastfeeding). Women normally lose about five to10 per cent of their skeletal calcium during six months of lactation, but regain it fully after weaning the baby. Mice lose a full one-third of their skeleton during three weeks of lactation, but regain it fully within about 10 days. By studying how the skeleton restores itself after weaning, Dr. Kovacs hopes to apply this knowledge to the treatment of osteoporosis and similar conditions in humans.

Dr. Kovacs has collaborations with researchers in the bone field throughout the world, and he is a principal investigator for several multi-centre clinical trails involving therapies for osteoporosis and diabetes. Separately, he spends about 20 per cent of his time in clinical practice, specializing in endocrinology and metabolism.

Dr. Kovacs is also proud of the success of the students he supervises. Most recently, doctoral candidate Charlene Noseworthy has been selected for a 2004 Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research for her paper entitled Parathyroid hormone (PTH) regulates placental calcium transfer independently of PTH-related protein (PTHrP). This is the second year in a row that a student supervised by Dr. Christopher Kovacs has won this prestigious award; last year, it was doctoral candidate Janine Woodrow, for her work on the role of calcitonin in protecting the skeleton during lactation. In total, students of his have won 13 awards for excellence in research in the past five years.

Dr. Kovacs' interest in endocrinology started while he was doing his medical degree and then his Internal Medicine residency at Queen's University. He went to the University of Alberta in 1992 for postgraduate training in endocrinology and metabolism, followed in 1994 through late 1997 by a post-doctoral research fellowship in bone and mineral metabolism at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Henry Kronenberg. He joined the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University in November 1997. His publication record includes 28 peer-reviewed papers, 10 medical textbook chapters and 44 research abstracts. He currently serves on the Study Section on Skeletal Development Biology and Disease for the National Institutes of Health, the editorial board for the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, the Education Committee of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the editorial board for Royal College Outlook, the program committee for the 26th Annual Meeting of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, and the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation National Grants Program Committee. He is a Councilor for the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation and for the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

In addition to his research and clinical work, Dr. Kovacs is an accomplished artist in watercolour, acrylic, pencil, ink, pastel and oil, although his favourite medium remains watercolour. Typical subjects include sea and landscapes, boats and buildings, and wildlife in its habitat. Born in Toronto, he completed an apprenticeship in fine art over eight years (during elementary and high school) with Dutch artist William Wegman in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He also completed a university course in fine art at Queen's University at Kingston. Since the time he settled in Newfoundland in 1997, he has focused on painting scenes of Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada.

For further information, please contact Dr. Christopher Kovacs using the Email contact form or by phone at 709 777-6881