UAMS to host Artificial Intelligence Conference in october. By News Staff Sept. 21, 2026 | LITTLE ROCK - The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is hosting the Third Annual Innovations in Artificial Intelligence Conference on Oct. 8-9, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) applications to research, clinics, and clinical education environments. A preconference event will be held from noon to 5 p.m., on Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Walton Auditorium on the 10th floor of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, 449 Jack Stephens Drive, on the main UAMS campus in Little Rock. The conference will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, in the same location. The free conference is open to anyone with an interest in AI and healthcare, including members of the public. Sessions will examine the evolving role and impact of AI within academic health centers, with emphasis across the clinical, research, and educational missions. "Artificial intelligence will not replace the human judgment, compassion, and curiosity at the heart of healthcare. It can, however, help us deliver care more effectively, prepare health professionals more thoughtfully, and accelerate discovery if we pair innovation with evidence, ethics, and accountability," said Wendy Ward, Ph.D., associate provost for faculty in the Division of Academic Affairs. The conference is hosted by the UAMS Interprofessional Faculty Development Department, the UAMS Office of Interprofessional Education (IPE), the UAMS Creativity Hub for Artificial Intelligence in Health (CHAI) housed in the College of Medicine's Department of Biomedical Informatics, the College of Medicine's Department of Humanities and Bioethics, and the Arkansas Geriatric Collaborative (AGEC). UAMS is the state's only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS' clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 1,030 medical residents and fellows, and two dental residents. It is the state's largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children's, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

UAMS celebrates opening of Multiple Sclerosis clinic in Fayetteville. By Andrew Vogler Sept. 18, 2026 | FAYETTEVILLE - The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 18 to celebrate the opening of the UAMS Health MS Clinic, located at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville. "UAMS is committed to expanding specialized care throughout the state, and with the opening of the new multiple sclerosis clinic, people in Northwest Arkansas living with MS can now receive treatment from neurologists who specialize in that disease - without leaving the region," said UAMS Chancellor C. Lowry Barnes, M.D. "I am also inspired by the efforts that have made this clinic possible, especially through the professional guidance of Dr. Rohit Dhall and Dr. Lee Archer, and through the philanthropy of Jo and Scott Rampy." Located at 1125 N. College Ave., the clinic will be under the supervision of Robert "Lee" Archer, M.D., professor of neurology in the UAMS Department of Neurology. "In the UAMS Department of Neurology, we have some of the foremost experts in treating neurological disorders such as MS, and leading this clinic is Dr. Lee Archer," said Rohit Dhall, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Neurology. "Further, in our mission to deliver high-quality care and advance MS research, we have had steadfast support from the Rampy MS Research Foundation, under the leadership and bravery of Jo and Scott Rampy. We are honored and grateful for their continued commitment towards UAMS' research and treatment of MS." The Rampy Multiple Sclerosis Research Foundation, created by Jo and Scott Rampy, made a $100,000 gift to the UAMS Department of Neurology to help open the clinic. The funds for the gift were raised through the nonprofit's nationwide network of supporters. "I am very thankful to the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus staff for all their diligent work getting the clinic up and running, ensuring we are able to provide world-class care," said Ryan Cork, MSHA, vice chancellor for the Northwest Arkansas Region. "This is an exciting development for the Northwest Arkansas community, and we are very grateful for partners like the Rampy Foundation." It was Jo Rampy's diagnosis with MS that was the catalyst for the couple's advocacy for MS research and the creation of the Rampy MS Research Foundation in 2012. The foundation organizes several fundraisers, including its premier event Trifest for MS, an annual triathlon in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the annual Run the Check event in which runners and walkers raise money while relaying a donation check from Bentonville to Little Rock. In addition to UAMS, the foundation has donated to Northwestern University in Chicago and University of California, San Francisco. Since its creation, the foundation has raised over $1 million. "We are beyond excited by the opening of this clinic because it is a goal of the Rampy Foundation to create better accessibility for MS patients, and this opening certainly strengthens the statewide network of MS clinical care," said Scott Rampy, president and chief advancement officer for the Rampy MS Research Foundation. "Also, we don't consider the clinic a conclusion of our efforts, we believe it is a step that accelerates MS research and clinical care in Arkansas and beyond." UAMS is the state's only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS' clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 1,030 medical residents and fellows, and two dental residents. It is the state's largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children's, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find UAMS group on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

'From idea to practicality:' BioVentures Innovation Day touts possibilities. By Benjamin Waldrum Aug. 28, 2026 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently celebrated researchers and their discoveries at BioVentures Innovation Day, which showed that innovation can take many forms, and celebrated the teams of experts that help make it all possible. BioVentures, founded in 1994, is the technology transfer and commercialization office at UAMS, supporting researchers and innovators in protecting intellectual property, advancing biomedical discoveries, developing startup companies, and connecting innovations with industry and the marketplace. Jay Gandy, Ph.D., professor emeritus (left) and BioVentures President Eric Peterson, Ph.D. (center) greet Dan Voth, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research (foreground) during Innovation Day.Bryan Clifton The Aug. 19 event drew more than 100 people to the 12th floor of the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, where attendees made new connections and learned how to make their ideas a reality. "Innovation is so important to our institution and life in general," said UAMS Chancellor C. Lowry Barnes, M.D., as he kicked off the day's events. Barnes has developed medical innovations for hip and knee surgeries over his career as an orthopaedic surgeon and owns multiple patents. He encouraged attendees to think ahead to next steps and commercialization, so that today's ideas can help tomorrow's patients. "Challenge each other, because that's what leads to innovation," Barnes added. "Our research is very important, but it's about how we apply it and how we use it to make Arkansans, Americans, and those around the world better." The connection between technology transfer offices and universities helps transfer ideas out into the real world, said BioVentures President Eric Peterson, Ph.D. He shared a few of UAMS' medical innovations over the years, including cancer marker antibodies, fetal monitoring systems, amino acid blends, and a fall risk assessment scale that became a national model. In 2025, BioVentures helped file 42 patent applications, Peterson said, with an additional eight patents granted. In total, the office handled nearly 300 individual patents over the last year, which brought in approximately $1.18 million in licensing and equity revenue. The office also assisted in founding three startup businesses and obtaining more than three dozen licenses. "Innovation begins when someone says, 'There has to be a better way,'" Peterson said. "Every patent represents a patient, and every invention disclosure begins with a patient problem." Amit Tiwari, Ph.D., (left) UAMS College of Pharmacy associate dean of research and graduate studies, and Brian Koss, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, chat during a break.Bryan Clifton Current trends in medical innovation are focusing on digital health, precision medicine, cell and gene therapy, biomedical informatics, and artificial intelligence (AI), which Peterson called "the elephant in the room." Above all, a renewed focus on Arkansas entrepreneurship will drive those innovations, he said. "The goal is not patents or startups, but the impact - lives changed," Peterson said. Allison Thompson, M.Ed., a program manager with BioVentures, said it's never too early to reach out to the office for long-term support. Along with consultation and support, the office has multiple programs available, including the Arkansas Health Ventures Accelerator for drugs and therapeutics, the NIH R25-funded CADET (Cancer and Developing Entrepreneurial Technologies) training program for cancer researchers, the MIEHT (Medical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Honors Track) honors program for medical students, the Founder's Forum for UAMS faculty startup leaders, and the soon-to-launch Research Innovation Ambassadors program, which will engage UAMS faculty as departmental connectors for research innovation and commercialization resources. A pair of panels generated plenty of discussion and audience questions. Megan Reed, Ph.D., MBA, senior licensing associate, moderated a conversation with local entrepreneurs Chris Baldwin and Amy Hopper Swan about the state of innovation and capital investments in Arkansas. Baldwin, who founded Synapse Communications Consulting, touted Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' involvement in promoting investment in homegrown innovations and said it's easier to make connections in a smaller state. Swan, the founder of Swan Impact Strategies and a strategy consultant with BioVentures, said that although healthcare venture capital investment in Arkansas is much lower than in neighboring states, there is also less market saturation, which translates to greater opportunities to grow something locally. "People may not think there is tech here [in Arkansas], but we know that there is," she said. "We are hungry to show what we can do." Nancy Rusch, Ph.D. (left) accepted the BioVentures Lifetime Impact Award for her decades of service to UAMS and the healthcare community.Benjamin Waldrum Luna Acosta, MBA, director of technology transfer at Arkansas State University, spoke with four local patent attorneys about protecting intellectual property rights for innovators. The influence of AI dominated most of the discussion, prompting several audience questions on how its use affects intellectual property and ownership of ideas. The panel advised inventors to use closed-circuit AI programs when brainstorming, as public-use AI programs will simply absorb any information and potentially share it with other users. "If you're not specifically checking the confidentiality safeguards [in AI], and you've put in what you think is a new antibody or nucleic acid sequence, you've just fed [that program] what potentially could have been a new sequence," said Tolga Gulman, Ph.D., a patent attorney with Quarles & Brady law firm. He added that, depending on the country, this could start the one-year grace period between publicly declaring an idea and being able to file a patent. Other events of the day included discussions on industry partnerships, common pitfalls while navigating regulatory pathways, and tips for founding a startup business. An awards ceremony closed Innovation Day. Winners included: * Patent Achievement Recognition * Jia Liu, Ph.D., U.S. Patent No. 12,428,626 * Arny Ferrando, Ph.D., and Robert Wolfe, Ph.D., Japanese Patent No. 7716119 * Philip Breen, Ph.D., U.S. Patent No. 12,516,035 * Srinivas Ayyadevara, Ph.D., Peter Crooks, Ph.D., and Robert Reis, Ph.D., U.S. Patent No. 12,552,763 * Subi Al'Aref, M.D., and Kedar Jambhekar, M.D., U.S. Patent No. 12,582,374 * Mohamed Abdeldayem, M.D., Ph.D., and Erika Petersen, M.D., U.S. Patent No. 12,370,338 * Therapeutic Innovation of the Year - William Lu, Ph.D., for developing FBX039-specific T-cell receptors, a new approach to T-cell therapy for difficult-to-treat solid cancers, including breast cancer and glioblastoma. * Student Innovator of the Year - Rodrigo Meade, a College of Medicine student, for showing initiative in developing ideas and having an entrepreneurial mindset. * Innovation Champion of the Year - Grover Miller, Ph.D., for his role with the UAMS Patent and Copyright Committee and continued support of innovative research. * Lead Woman Inventor of the Year - Erica Malone, Ph.D., for developing a high-fidelity nerve block simulation model to help train clinicians through simulation. * Medical Device of the Year - Erica Malone, Ph.D., Michael Luna, M.D., Beau Aguilar, Anthony Gunderman, Ph.D., and Alex Gilman, M.D., for developing a high-fidelity perfused cadaveric simulator for coronary artery bypass graft, which creates a more realistic environment for multidisciplinary teams to practice complex procedures. * Research Innovation Ambassadors - Samuel Atcherson, Ph.D.; Craig Forrest, Ph.D.; Abdel Fouda, Ph.D.; Robert Griffin, Ph.D.; Andy James, Ph.D.; Grover Miller, Ph.D.; Konrad Rajab, M.D.; Analiz Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.; Ankita Shukla, M.D.; Amanda Stolarz, Pharm.D., Ph.D.; Ben Stronach, M.D.; Sami Uwaydat, M.D.; Chris Wardell, Ph.D.; Yong Zhu, Ph.D. Allison Streepey, a business manager with the UAMS Centers on Aging, attended the event and came away with a greater knowledge of the patent process from start to finish. "I knew only a little about BioVentures, but this conference showed me how they establish contacts and resources to help protect inventors completely through the process, from the idea to practicality," she said. "My favorite part was seeing the scientist researchers being recognized with awards for making a difference in the world through their work." Peterson also presented Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, with the BioVentures Lifetime Impact Award for her decades of service to UAMS and the healthcare community. Rusch, who led an NIH-funded cardiovascular lab for 30 years and held numerous leadership positions at UAMS, also co-founded a startup company through BioVentures and serves on its advisory board. "If you want to be successful and have a fun career, just step out of your comfort zone," Rusch said. "Everything I've done related to entrepreneurship has not been in my comfort zone. I think, whether at 25, 35, 50, or 72 - it's never too late to be an entrepreneur."