David R. Clemmons MD

David R. Clemmons, MD, is one of those fortunate people who discover their direction in life early and never veer from it. Now an endocrinologist and the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a young medical student there when he first experienced what would become his lifelong love of medical research.

Dr. Clemmons that was an exciting revelation. He immediately saw the potential application in osteoporosis, a possibility that spoke to his heart as well as his mind. In that peptide, Dr. Clemmons envisioned hope for the elderly women with osteoporosis he sees every week with their pain, difficulty moving, broken bones, and fractures that occur simply because their bones are so weak.

Dr. Clemmons already is looking forward to them. “Seeing those results is what keeps me going and energized,” he says. “I can live for a week on the positive results of a clinical trial, knowing that a discovery will make a difference in people’s lives.”

The osteoporosis drug would give Dr. Clemmons a trio of discoveries in clinical trials. His other successes, a monoclonal antibody for diabetic nephropathy and a compound that inhibits coronary artery disease in diabetes, are currently in clinical trials.

Dr. Clemmons is modest about his achievements as a physician-scientist, but he is quietly proud of what could be his legacy. “If all three compounds make it as therapeutics,” he considers, “that would be a pretty good accomplishment.”