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Sterling Professorship Enhances Gastroenterology
Naming Gene LeSage, M.D., to the Dan and Lillie Sterling Professorship in Clinical Gastroenterology ensures that one of the world’s experts in gastroenterology has the means to keep fighting for quality care and cures.
Gene LeSage, M.D., center, reviews patient records with Jon
Schneider, left, a fourth-year medical student; Selvi Thirumurthi,
M.D., a second-year fellow; and David Wolf, M.D., far right, a
third-year resident, during rounds at Memorial Hermann Hospital
in Houston.
Photo by Ester Fant
LeSage is director of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
The late Dan and Lillie Sterling, longtime donors to the UT Medical School, created the Sterling Professorship in 1998.
LeSage said that the endowment has served as a motivator for him to contemplate new research and ways to further gastroenterology, the branch of medicine dealing with disorders affecting the stomach, intestines and related organs.
In addition to the financial support it lends to future projects, the position also gives recognition for hard work. “I see it as a sign of commitment to me,” LeSage said. And those who know LeSage say he deserves that kind of commitment.
“Dr. LeSage is not only an excellent doctor but he relates to other doctors and his patients very well,” said Rafael Botero, M.D., medical director of hepatology and liver transplants and the director of the Texas Liver Center.
Botero, who was hired by LeSage a year ago, said even in that short period of time the change, reorganization and improvement of the department is evident. “He is always striving to improve the level of care.”
Frank Arnett, M.D., holder of the Elizabeth Bidgood Chair in Rheumatology at the Medical School, said he couldn’t agree more. “Dr. LeSage is an outstanding scientist and one of the world’s experts on liver disease and bile. He is highly regarded as a teacher and a physician who truly cares about people with liver disease.”
Arnett, who is also a former chairman of internal medicine at the Medical School, nominated LeSage for the professorship, along with leading efforts to recruit him from Scott and White Clinic/Texas A & M University College of Medicine, where he served as director of hepatology and built clinical and research programs in hepatology.
But when the call for an expansion and improvement of the gastroenterology program came from UT in 2002, LeSage said he jumped at the chance, sparking the move from Aggie Land to Longhorn country.
His work at UT has largely involved the active pursuit of studies in bile duct epithelium cell biology, funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Prior to his time spent at Texas A&M, LeSage’s career in medicine began with the Mayo Clinic, where he completed his residency, fellowship and research traineeship. He attended undergraduate and medical school at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
“There has been tremendous growth in the last 20 to 25 years in the profession and the way illnesses are treated,” LeSage said. But he believes he is up for the challenge.
“Things don’t change easily. It’s been a tough job, but it has also been enjoyable,” he said.
The Sterling family also funded the Dan and Jay Sterling Fellowship in Gastroenterology, the Jay Brent Sterling Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine and the Jay Brent Sterling Research Fund in honor of their son, who died in 1988, as well as the Dan Sterling Myocardial Infarction Research Laboratory in the Medical School. Dan Sterling died in 2001; his wife in 2003.
— By Erika E. Durham, Public Affairs