Christopher Kovacs

What brought me to MUN? What keeps me at MUN?

Being a clinician scientist requires a lot of protected time for research and other concessions. I found that although most institutions said they wanted clinician scientists, they didn’t realize how much protected time was necessary, and what they really wanted were full-time clinicians who also somehow managed to invent substantial spare time to do research (or who never slept). At MUN, the Chair of Medicine (Dr. John Harnett), and Dean of Medicine (Dr. Ian Bowmer), were prepared to make the necessary arrangements so that I would have that shot of becoming the clinician scientist I wanted to be, and they kept their word. Moreover, they were both welcoming and friendly, unlike at most institutions where site interviews were conducted rather like poker games without either side revealing what they were really thinking or wanting.

Biography

Dr. Christopher Kovacs obtained his MD and trained in Internal Medicine at Queen’s University, and did his clinical fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Alberta. He did a postdoctoral research fellowship in bone and mineral metabolism at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. During a sabbatical he studied bone histomorphometry at St. Vincent’s Institute of the University of Melbourne.

His clinical practice focuses on osteoporosis, disorders of bone metabolism, thyroid disorders, and general endocrinology. His basic and translational research focuses on adaptations in calcium and bone metabolism that occur during reproduction and fetal development.

He has received over a dozen national and international awards for excellence in research, including the 2003 Gold Medal in Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; the 2003 Young Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Young Investigator Awards from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and Advances in Mineral Metabolism. He has served on Editorial Boards of journals, CIHR and NIH grant committees, and as a reviewer for grant agencies in Canada, USA, England, Ireland, and Australia. He was also on the Institute of Medicine / National Academies of Science USA Committee to Review Calcium and Vitamin D. He was the president of Advances in Mineral Metabolism for 2015-2017.

Since 2000 his graduate students have won over 60 international, national, and local awards for excellence in research, including Young Investigator Awards from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research; a New Investigator Award from the European Calcified Tissue Society; travel awards from the International Bone and Mineral Society, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Japanese Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Indo-US Conference on Vitamin D, and Canadian Diabetes Association; and doctoral awards from CIHR, NSERC, and Memorial University.

CALCIUM,PHOSPHORUS AND BONE METABOLISM

The research in the lab of Dr. Kovacs is focused on the regulation of calcium and bone metabolism during the reproductive periods, including pregnancy, lactation, and fetal development. Mammalian fetuses regulate calcium and bone metabolism in a manner distinct from adults, reflecting the unique needs of the developing fetus (e.g. mineralization of skeleton, active transfer of calcium across the placenta) and the developmental roles of certain hormones (e.g. parathyroid hormone-related protein or PTHrP). Little is known about how the fetus accomplishes this regulation, or how and when the normal adult regulatory mechanisms are established after birth. During pregnancy and especially during lactation, calcium and other minerals are borrowed from the mother's skeleton to provide to the fetus or the milk, and then the lost calcium is restored to the mother's skeleton without any permanent loss in bone strength or density. It is particularly important to determine how the mother's skeleton is able to regain bone mass so quickly and readily, because the adult skeleton is normally unable to gain bone mass that has been lost. The mother's skeleton regains bone mass after weaning at a rate that exceeds the efficacy of our current pharmacological treatments for osteoporosis.

The research largely utilizes specific transgenic and gene knockout mouse models, molecular techniques, radiological techniques (including bone mineral density by DXA on small animals), and classical physiological studies, to focus on several areas:

1) Hormonal regulation of active placental calcium and phosphorus transfer and fetal mineral homeostasis;

2) Molecular mechanism(s) of calcium and phosphorus transfer at the level of the trophoblasts and intraplacental yolk sac cells;

3) Neonatal transition from fetal to adult regulatory mechanisms for mineral homeostasis;

4) Regulation of mineral and bone homeostasis during pregnancy and lactation.

Calcium Research Laboratory Staff

Christopher S. Kovacs, Principal Investigator Google Scholar Summary
Beth Kirby, Research Assistant
Sarah Hartery, Graduate Student (MSc)
David Bennin, Graduate Student (MSc)
Alexandre Maekawa, Graduate Student (MSc)
Kristi Berit Sellars, Graduate Student (MSc)
Abdelkhayoum Al-Tilissi, Graduate Student (MSc)