Miodrag Radulovacki

Radulovacki lived in Chicago. He was a cross-country skier. He participated in several Birkebeiner-Kortelopet cross-country ski marathons in Cable-Hayward, Wisconsin. Radulovacki died on May 27, 2014 in Belgrade, Serbia, while on two-week trip to promote his philanthropic projects. He is survived by two sons and four grandchildren.

Miodrag (Misha) Radulovacki (Serbian Cyrillic: Миодраг Радуловачки; Serbian Latin: Miodrag Radulovački), 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.

Radulovacki was named the 2010 Inventor of the Year at the University of Illinois, alongside Carley. Radulovacki and Carley were honored by the University of Illinois for producing a dozen potential treatments for sleep apnea, many of which are now under consideration for commercial development. Their results have culminated in an IllinoisVentures-supported start-up company, Pier Pharmaceuticals, that focuses on the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

In 2005, Radulovacki established the Miodrag Radulovacki Family Prize for Excellence in Basic Sciences at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. The purpose of the prize, given annually, is to honor a fourth year Medical student who displays a high degree of intellectual integrity and who has demonstrated strong academic achievement. The prize consists of a plaque and a check for $1,000.

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.

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.

In 1990, Radulovacki initiated the Yugoslav Student Summer Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (UIUC) after the creation of International Linkage Agreements between the UIC and the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Student Summer Program lasted for 12 years and had 304 participants.

In 1984, Radulovacki postulated the Adenosine Sleep Theory, (JPET, 228: 268-274, 1984). 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.

In 1970, Radulovacki was recruited by Klaus Unna to join the Department of Pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an Assistant Professor. Radulovacki published more than 170 scientific papers during his career at the UIC.

In 1966, Radulovacki accepted a teaching position with the Physiology Department in the College of Medicine at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. There he invented an approach for obtaining cerebrospinal fluid using a cannula to the cisterna magna in the brain of cats. The cannulation method enabled researchers to obtain cerebrospinal fluid during sleep and wakefulness for the analysis of monoamine metabolites. 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.

Radulovacki graduated from the University of Belgrade School of Medicine in 1959. He went on to obtain a PhD in Neurophysiology. The topic of his PhD thesis was: "Sleep in Split-Brain Cats," partly done at the Brain Research Institute at UCLA.

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". Radulovacki graduated as valedictorian of the Karlovci High School Class of 1951. Radulovacki gained admission to the University of Belgrade School of Medicine.

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.