Dr. Marguerite French, 1957 OMRF Fleming Scholar I thought of myself as a typical teenager. Just an Okie from Muskogee. Back then, the town was still divided, with a railroad track separating the black and white sides of town. When I was 17, I scored well on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. My […]
Jordan Tang is not done with Alzheimer’s yet. An Alzheimer’s drug. That was how the story was supposed to end. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Jordan Tang and his team of researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation made an extraordinary series of Alzheimer’s breakthroughs. First, they identified the enzyme believed responsible for the […]
At OMRF, scientists spend long hours designing experiments and investigating the inner workings of disease. But they don’t live their entire lives behind a microscope. Here’s what they’re doing when they’re not in the lab. Doing Dr. Jana Barlic-Dicen “When I moved to Oklahoma two years ago, I bought a house in the right […]
Dear Dr. Prescot, Last year, the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon took place on an unseasonably warm day, and I melted down, running 35 minutes slower than my best. When temperatures were downright chilly this year, I set a new personal record. What can I do to ensure that I run well, regardless of the weather? […]
Floyd Cross was a bulldogger. But, he discovered, taking down a steer is nowhere near as tough as taking down cancer. For 12 years, he lived with the disease. It invaded his colon and liver, threatening his life time and again. But thanks to new treatments developed through research, he is now cancer-free. To celebrate […]
In science fiction, the rise of the robots is cause for alarm. But in science fact, the machines are already here. “Robots are simply machines capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically,” says OMRF’s Dr. Patrick Gaffney. In Gaffney’s lab, robots have played a key part in identifying genes linked to […]
She’d felt like this before. At scientific conferences, before giving a presentation, her stomach would begin twisting and turning and jumping and spinning, like Cirque du Soleil was putting on an impromptu show in her gut. Dr. Kathy Moser could hear the audience file into their seats at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. […]
A devastating accident robbed an Oklahoma farmer of the life he knew. But sometimes hope grows in the most unlikely fields. A tooth under a drill. Skin torn by a shard of glass. A finger smashed beneath the blow of a hammer. John Enns would gladly have traded any of these for the pain […]
Dear Dr. Prescott, I’ve been told many times—most often by my mother—that the more I exercise, the more easily I’ll fall asleep at night. Is there any research to back this up? Adam Cohen, Norman In 2009, researchers asked children to wear devices that measured their movements all day. When the scientists examined the […]
Johnnie Fisher was a shy man. But when the retired Vance Air Force Base sergeant died in 2009 at the age of 77, the gift he left to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation proved quite an attention-getter. Two years later, OMRF received a check for $600,000 from Enid attorney Clark McKeever, who represents the executors […]
“AN EXPERIMENT,” says Toby Bothwell, “is a lot like running. Some things work, and some don’t. You have to try different approaches to optimize your results.” Bothwell should know. In 2009, his senior year at Westmoore High School, he was named the Gatorade Oklahoma Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year for a season that […]
In new research, scientists from OMRF and Purdue University have created an experimental compound that reduces memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease-causing plaques in mice genetically engineered to develop the illness. When technicians treated the animals with a new compound developed by OMRF’s Dr. Jordan Tang and Purdue’s Dr. Arun Ghosh, they found a 75 percent […]
Farming is part of the fabric of our state. For generations, it has represented much more than the backbone of our economy; it has defined a way of life for many rural Oklahomans. The job requires hard work. Perseverance in the face of adversity. The faith that the seed you plant today will sprout […]
