Miodrag Radulovacki

Miodrag (Misha) Radulovacki , was a Serbian American scientist and inventor. He was professor of pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Radulovacki's research accomplishments include: (1) the Adenosine Sleep Theory, and (2) pioneering pharmacological studies for the treatment of sleep apnea, together with research collaborator, David W. Carley, (professor of medicine at the UIC). Radulovacki and Carley invented several drug therapies for the treatment of sleep apnea which have been patented by the UIC. The UIC recognized them as the 2010 "Inventors of the Year." Radulovacki published more than 170 scientific papers. Radulovacki was also a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Early life Miodrag Radulovacki was born on April 28, 1933, in Parage, a village in northwestern Serbia. Both of his parents were elementary school teachers. At the beginning of World War II, Radulovacki's father was drafted into the Yugoslav Army and was later taken prisoner by the invading Germans.

In 1943, Radulovacki moved to Sremski Karlovci after his mother accepted a teaching position in the town. Sremski Karlovci (also known as Karlovci), a baroque Serbian town on the banks of the Danube River, had been home to the Radulovacki family for over 200 years. Radulovacki attended Karlovci High School or "Gymnasium," which is the oldest high school in Serbia. Radulovacki called Karlovci Gymnasium the "Serbian Cambridge and Oxford". He went on to obtain a PhD in Neurophysiology. where his mentor was Ross Adey. One of the findings of his research at UCLA was that the electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern of sleep in cats with split brain to the pons is synchronous in both brain hemispheres, indicating the importance of the brainstem in sleep regulation.

In 1966, Radulovacki accepted a teaching position with the Physiology Department in the College of Medicine at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. This approach was of interest since Michel Jouvet's Monoamine Theory of Sleep, with serotonin as the sleep inducing agent, was dominant at the time. From 1970 to 1984, at the University of Illinois, Radulovacki published a series of papers dealing with the role of monoamines in sleep. to join the Department of Pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an assistant professor. The idea for adenosine's role in sleep occurred to him after reading a paper by Sol Snyder's group (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, 78: 3260-64, 1981) about the importance of adenosine receptors in the behavioral actions of methylxanthines. In the article, the authors correlated the behavioral excitation produced by theophylline in micromolar concentrations with the blockade of adenosine receptors.

Radulovacki reasoned that if the blocking of adenosine receptors produces excitation, then perhaps stimulation of the same receptors could induce sleep. He knew that experiments by John Phillis and his group (Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 57:1289-1312, 1979), which utilized an iontophoretic application of adenosine in the brain, had demonstrated adenosine's depressant effect on the responses of neurons in several brain regions and that the general neurophysiological effects of adenosine were shown to be inhibitory. In addition, the preliminary experiments in dogs by Haulica et al. (J. Neurochem. 21:,1019–20, 1973) and the administration of adenosine into the brains of rats, cats and fowl suggested that adenosine was able to produce behavioral sleep. The explanation of adenosine's hypnotic effect was through its interaction with serotonin, widely believed to be a sleep inducing agent. However, since there was no suggestion how this adenosine-serotonin link was achieved, experiments highlighting the potential role of adenosine in sleep had largely been forgotten.

Research collaboration with David W. Carley In 1993, Radulovacki started a collaboration with David W. Carley, a professor of medicine, bioengineering and pharmacology at the UIC. Their research efforts focused on developing pharmacological approaches for the treatment of sleep apnea. Since there were no medicines to alleviate this condition, Radulovacki and Carley set out to develop a drug treatment. Their initial work focussed on an experimental model of sleep apnea in rats, initially testing the effects of adenosine compounds. Eventually, they obtained positive results using serotonin and other compounds. As a result, the UIC patented their discoveries, obtaining numerous US and international patents.

Patents for sleep and sleep-related disorders include: "Hypnotic Composition and Method of Inducing Sleep"; Inventor: Miodrag Radulovacki, US Patent 4537907, August 27, 1985. (This patent was issued to UIC before Radulovacki started his collaboration with Carley in 1993). "Pharmacological Treatment for Sleep Apnea"; Inventors: Miodrag Radulovacki and David W. Carley, US Patent 6,331,536 B1, December 18, 2001. "Neuropharmacological Treatments of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders"; Inventors: Miodrag Radulovacki and David W. Carley, US Patent 6,555,564 B1, April 29, 2003. "Pharmacological Treatment for Sleep Apnea"; Inventors: Miodrag Radulovacki and David W. Carley, US Patent 6,727,242 B2, April 27, 2004. "Neuropharmacological Treatment of Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders"; Inventors: Miodrag Radulovacki and David W. Carley, US Patent 6,974,814 B2, December 13, 2005. "Pharmacological Treatment for Sleep Apnea"; Inventors: Miodrag Radulovacki and David W. Carley, US Patent 7,160,898 B2, January 9, 2007. "Method for Treating Sleep Apnea"; Inventors: David W. Carley and Miodrag Radulovacki, US Patent 7,705,039 B2, April 27, 2010. "Methods for treating sleep disorders by cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor B antagonists": Inventors: David W. Carley and Miodrag Radulovacki, US Patent 8,053,413 B2, Nov. 8, 2011. "Pharmacological treatments for sleep disorders (apnoe) with prostanoid receptor antagonists", Inventors: David W. Carley and Miodrag Radulovacki, US Patent 8,076,315, Dec. 13, 2011.

Inventor of the Year 2010 Radulovacki was named the 2010 Inventor of the Year at the University of Illinois, alongside Carley. Their results have culminated in an IllinoisVentures-supported start-up company, Pier Pharmaceuticals, that focuses on the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Membership in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts In October 2003, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade elected Radulovacki as one of its Foreign Members for his significant scientific research contributions in the fields of Neuropharmacology, sleep disorders and sleep-related breathing disorders. The Yugoslav Student Summer Program lasted for 12 years and had 304 participants.

Philanthropy In 2005, Radulovacki established the Miodrag Radulovacki Family Prize for Excellence in Basic Sciences at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. which occupies a historic building in the center of the town. In 2010, Radulovacki restored the monument of Serbian poet, Branko Radičević (Radichevich), at Stražilovo (Strazhilovo) which is located on a mountain-top surrounded by forests in the Fruška Gora (Frushka Gora) National Park near Karlovci. In 2011, Radulovacki financed the construction of a self-sustaining ecological building with solar panels and geothermal heat pumps in the courtyard of the Karlovci Ecological Center. In recognition of Radulovacki's philanthropy, the ecological center was renamed the Ecological Center Radulovački.

Personal life Radulovacki lived in Chicago. He was a cross-country skier.

Selected publications

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