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News Release

For immediate use 

Nov. 1, 2005 -- No. 526

Gift creates professorship, endowment to support
UNC’s Thurston Arthritis Research Center

CHAPEL HILL -- A $3 million gift to the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine will support the center’s efforts to recruit and retain top faculty, as well as fund part of its research mission.

The gift includes $2.5 million from an anonymous donor to establish the Joseph P. Archie Jr. Eminent Professorship in Medicine. The remaining funds come from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and the North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund.

Along with supporting an outstanding faculty member, the Joseph P. Archie Jr. Eminent Professorship in Medicine will create an endowment that provides permanent funding for the Thurston Center’s research into autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Dhavalkumar Patel, the center’s director, said the professorship will bolster the center’s ability to carry out its mission to investigate the causes, consequences and treatments of arthritis and autoimmune diseases, and to reduce their effects on patients, their families and society.

"We are deeply grateful for this exceptionally generous gift in support of our research objectives," Patel said. "This endowment will enable our center to continue our fight to understand how autoimmune disorders work. Only by understanding the mechanisms of immunologic and autoimmune disorders can we determine the best approach for treatment, management and, ultimately, prevention."

The Joseph P. Archie Jr. Eminent Professorship in Medicine is named for Dr. Joseph Archie Jr., a 1968 alumnus of UNC’s School of Medicine who served as past president of the UNC Medical Co-Founders Club. The anonymous donor chose to honor Archie in recognition of his career as a dedicated and compassionate vascular surgeon in Raleigh, where he served in private practice from 1981 to his retirement in 2000.

Throughout his career, Archie remained interested in teaching and research, serving as both clinical professor of surgery at UNC and adjunct professor of mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University. He has published 135 articles in peer-reviewed surgical and biomedical engineering journals and has written 20 book chapters.

Archie is a past president of the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery and a past recorder of the American Association of Vascular Surgery (Society for Vascular Surgery). He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Vascular Surgery and the boards of the UNC Medical Foundation and the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals.

Endowed professorships rank among UNC’s highest priorities. The level of eminent professorship was created in 2001 to address the urgent need to retain and recruit the top scholars and teachers in their fields. Because faculty recruitment and retention are a top priority, the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust and the North Carolina Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund will provide matching funds to establish five of these professorships.

The Thurston Arthritis Research Center was chartered in 1981 by UNC’s School of Medicine as a Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center.

The gift to the center counts toward the university’s Carolina First campaign goal of $2 billion. Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

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Note: Contact Randy Mounce at (919) 966-9301 or randy_mounce@med.unc.edu with interview requests for Patel.

Development Communications contact: Scott Ragland, (919) 962-0027 or scott_ragland@unc.edu

Thurston Arthritis Research Center contact: Randy Mounce, (919) 966-9301 or randy_mounce@med.unc.edu