J. Donald Capra, M.D., who led the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation during a nine-year period of unprecedented growth, will retire as OMRF’s president, effective May 1, 2006.
“When I came to OMRF in 1997, I still vividly recall that several members of our board took me aside and told me, each in their own way, ‘OMRF is truly a world-class organization. Keep it that way,’” said Capra, 68. “I hope I have succeeded in meeting that charge.”
Indeed, during Capra’s tenure, OMRF’s funding from the National Institutes of Health has more than tripled, from $8 million in 1997 to $27.4 million in 2005. He spearheaded the largest fundraising effort in OMRF’s history, a $100 million campaign that the foundation successfully completed in 2004, and launched a second $100 million campaign in 2005 that is currently ongoing.
Under Capra’s leadership, two life-saving drugs with OMRF roots have reached the market: Xigris, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for severe sepsis (which claims more than 200,000 American lives each year); and Ceprotin, a drug to treat children suffering from a life-threatening blood disorder. Three other OMRF-based drugs have also entered the final stages of human clinical trials during this time, including a potential treatment for stroke.
“These last nine years have seen OMRF move from good to great,” said Len Cason, chair of OMRF’s board of directors. “With Dr. Capra at the helm, OMRF’s researchers have excelled in obtaining grants, publishing scientific papers and making groundbreaking discoveries.”
OMRF now ranks 12th among all members of the Association of Independent Research Institutes for NIH funding, and under Capra, its scientists’ papers have been featured in the world’s leading scientific journals—The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Cell, Nature and Science. OMRF also now scores among the country’s leading institutions in patents per investigator.
“Dr. Capra has helped nurture a culture of scientific excellence,” continued Cason. “This excellence is the reason I am confident that OMRF’s future shines even brighter than its present.”
Capra timed his retirement with the culmination of a year-long search for his successor. “Over the past year, we have conducted an intensive national search to find a preeminent scientist with the leadership skills and vision to succeed Dr. Capra,” said Cason. “That process is nearly complete, and we plan on making an announcement within the next week.”
Capra, an internationally recognized immunologist, will continue his laboratory work at OMRF, where he will, among other things, oversee a $13.8 million grant to study the bacterium that causes anthrax. The five-year grant, awarded to Capra and OMRF in 2004, is the largest ever secured by an Oklahoma institution to fund bioterrorism research.
“It has been an indescribable pleasure to lead an institution as special as OMRF,” said Capra, who came to OMRF after 23 years as a scientist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Thanks to the support of countless Oklahomans and a superb scientific staff, OMRF has made real progress in achieving its mission—ensuring that ‘more may live longer, healthier lives.’ I would like to think that, in some small way, I have contributed to that.”
About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences.
