The laboratories at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation are typically pretty quiet places. But today and tomorrow, they will echo with the oohs and ahs of 35 youngsters who will don lab coats, goggles and gloves for the 25th installment of OMRF’s Junior Science Days.
Thirty-five elementary, middle and high school students from the Putnam City Schools will spend a day side-by-side with OMRF scientists, trying their hands at medical research. In the process, they will get the chance to isolate cells, view their own DNA and learn about diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
“This is OMRF’s way of saying thank you to some of Oklahoma’s youngest – and most generous – philanthropists,” said OMRF President J. Donald Capra, M.D.
Each year, students from the Putnam City Schools raise money for cancer research at OMRF through bake sales, car washes, carnivals and countless other fundraising methods. Last year’s installment of the Putnam City Cancer Drive raised more than $157,000.
Since its inception in 1975, the event has raised more than $2 million. OMRF has used these donations to purchase high-powered microscopes, centrifuges and incubators and even to endow a chair in cancer research at OMRF.
“It thrills me to see the dedication that these young people display year after year,” said Lois Thomas, a retired Putnam City teacher who started the annual fundraising drive after she lost three colleagues to cancer in a single year. “These students want to leave their mark on the search for a cure for cancer, and they are succeeding.”
About OMRF:
OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. OMRF is home to Oklahoma’s only Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and only member of the National Academy of Sciences in the area of biomedical research.
