L. Darryl Quarles, M.D.
Founder & CEO
Dr. Quarles is the UTMG Endowed Professor, Director of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC).
Dr. Quarles graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He finished his medical school training and residency in Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his fellowship in Nephrology at Duke University Medical Center. He was on the faculty at Duke from 1986 to 2004, where he was Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Bone and Mineral Disorders. From 2004 to 2009 he served as the Summerfield Endowed Professor and Director of the Kidney Institute and Nephrology Division at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Since 2009, he has been Director of the Division of Nephrology and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC).
At UTHSC he organized an academic drug discovery consortium involving Oak Ridge National Laboratory/ UT-Knoxville and the College of Pharmacy and Medicine at UTHSC. Oak Ridge Therapeutic Discovery arose out of this consortium.
Dr. Quarles also heads an NIH funded research group that focuses on use of mouse genetic approaches to study bone and mineral metabolism. Ongoing projects include investigating the role of primary cilia and polycystin complexes in bone mechanosensing and development, the function of GPRC6A in regulation of energy metabolism, and the regulation and function of the FGF23-bone-kidney axis in health and disease. His cumulative NIH research funding exceeds 20 million dollars.
He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and in the subspecialty of Nephrology. He is a former deputy editor for the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, a member of the editorial board for Bone and Mineral Metabolism, and member of the publications committee for the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Research and the Association of American Physicians. He is a recipient of the Coburn Endowed Lecture from the American Society of Nephrology for his work regarding endocrine functions of bone.