Twenty students will begin or return to college this month after spending the summer at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation conducting experiments on conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis.
This year’s OMRF interns included 14 students comprising OMRF’s 69th class of Sir Alexander Fleming Scholars, two who formed the fifth class of the Langston Biomedical Research Scholars Program, and four U.S. military academy students who made up the 16th class of the John H. Saxon Service Academy Summer Research Program.
“Training future scientists is at the heart of what we do at OMRF,” said Ashley Cheyney, Ph.D., assistant director of scientific training and outreach. “Each year, our summer scholars tell us how their time here helped them grow and gave them a clearer sense of their future in science. We’re excited to see where these students’ paths lead next.”
Since 1956, the Fleming program has given Oklahoma students hands-on biomedical research experience. It is named for Sir Alexander Fleming, the British scientist who discovered penicillin and in 1949 came to Oklahoma City to dedicate OMRF’s first building.
Fleming Scholar Edward Kang of Edmond, a Casady School graduate now at Harvard College, studied how a drug called rapamycin changes the DNA in our brains. Originally used to prevent organ transplant rejection, rapamycin now is being explored for its anti-aging potential.
“OMRF has an incredibly supportive, tight-knit community,” Kang said. “I felt welcome here from the start, and I’ve been given space and freedom within my project to learn as I go.”
The Saxon internship program, created by OMRF Board Member John Saxon III, M.D., honors his father, a West Point graduate and career Air Force pilot who taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Since 2009, more than 40 military students have participated in the program.
Hayden Ward, an Air Force Academy cadet from Mobile, Alabama, spent her OMRF internship studying the differences in wound healing between mice and humans.
“This is my first research experience,” the biology major said. “One thing I’ve learned here is that if you don’t understand something, don’t get down on yourself. Practice makes perfect. All my lab mates have reminded me of that. Their drive and their grace have been contagious.”
The Langston Scholars program is a partnership between OMRF and Langston University.
“This internship has opened up my eyes to the possibility of doing research in the future,” said Quentavius Wickliffe, a Langston scholar from Guthrie who eventually hopes to enter Langston’s doctoral physical therapy program. “This summer has been paramount for not just my career, but my life.”
Applications for OMRF’s 2025 internship programs will open this fall. For more information, visit omrf.org/Training.
