The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa has awarded the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation a $150,000 grant to support the renovation and addition of new laboratory space on the OMRF campus.
The project includes the addition of a microscopy suite to be built on the fourth floor west wing of OMRF’s Chapman building. The total cost of the renovation will be $750,000.
“We’ve followed the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for years, and they’re well received,” said John H. Conway Jr., Vice Chairman of the Mabee Foundation. “They’re doing a good job, and we want to help them continue.” The Mabee Foundation has given nearly $2 million to OMRF since 1958, including $500,000 in 2003 for capital renovations.
“For almost a half-century, the Mabee Foundation has invested in the health of Oklahomans and people everywhere through its generous support of OMRF,” said Steve Blair, OMRF’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement. “With this new grant, the Mabee Foundation has once again helped provide our scientists with important new weapons in the fight against human disease.”
This latest renovation project will improve and adapt OMRF laboratories essential to conducting state-of-the-art microscopy research. The project, which includes the acquisition of a powerful new microscope, will dramatically improve the methods scientists can use in experimentation to determine the cause of human diseases such as Alzheimer’s, lupus and cardiovascular disease.
Construction is expected to begin in June and be completed by year-end.
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.
