So, 2020. Not quite the 366 days any of us were expecting, huh? But we all found a way to muddle through. And the scientists, physicians and staff of OMRF were no different. For most employees, the emergence of Covid-19 in March brought a months-long shutdown of onsite activities. Throughout the spring, only a handful […]
2020 Annual Report: New Hope for Treating Vision Loss
2020 Annual Report: New Hope for Treating Vision Loss
The calls and emails came almost immediately. Within days of publishing a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about a novel compound that could reverse vision loss in premature infants and adults with diabetes, Dr. Courtney Griffin’s inbox and voicemail began to fill. The messages came from Michigan, Washington and Texas, […]
2020 Annual Report: A Homecoming of Sorts
2020 Annual Report: A Homecoming of Sorts
When Dr. Matlock Jeffries began his first day of work at OMRF in August, it may have been the smoothest transition in the foundation’s history. That Monday morning, he entered the same lab where he’d been studying osteoarthritis for the previous four years. Only now, he’d be doing it as a member of OMRF’s scientific […]
2020 Annual Report: Honoring a Recovered Texan
2020 Annual Report: Honoring a Recovered Texan
Dr. Stephen Prescott joins the Oklahoma Hall of Fame Will Rogers. Ralph Ellison. Woody Guthrie. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher. Sequoyah. Now, add Dr. Stephen Prescott to the list of Oklahomans who have received the state’s highest honor. In November, OMRF’s president was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. The Hall saluted Prescott for his […]
2020 Annual Report: An Anti-Aging Pill?
2020 Annual Report: An Anti-Aging Pill?
2020 had many downsides. But for Dr. Benjamin Miller, a year devoid of social engagements and work-related travel brought an unexpected gift: more time on his bike. A former elite amateur cyclist, Miller gets up before dawn most mornings to ride. He estimates he spends 10 to 15 hours cycling in a typical week, which […]
2020 Annual Report: Old Drug, New Tricks
2020 Annual Report: Old Drug, New Tricks
The road from laboratory discoveries to drugs to treat patients might more accurately be described as a treacherous mountain path. Many experiments that appear promising in a Petri dish don’t work in mice. And compounds that are safe and effective in rodents won’t necessarily prove out in people. The U.S. drug industry’s trade organization, the […]
2020 Annual Report: From Bedside to Bench
2020 Annual Report: From Bedside to Bench
First a physician, Dr. Lijun Xia has become a research star As a young physician in China, Dr. Lijun Xia treated people with life-threatening blood diseases. But few medications existed to help the people he cared for, and over time, the hematologist grew frustrated. “I wanted to do better for my patients, to give them […]
2020 Annual Report: Healing Broken Hearts
2020 Annual Report: Healing Broken Hearts
Most of us know someone, or are someone, who has heart disease. It causes more deaths in the U.S. than cancer, taking 600,000 lives each year and millions more worldwide. One of the most common forms of heart disease is aortic stenosis. It occurs when the main valve of the heart — the aortic valve […]
2020 Annual Report: How 2020 Changed Science
2020 Annual Report: How 2020 Changed Science
You simply couldn’t find a scientist who was studying Covid-19 in 2019. Which makes sense, because it wasn’t until the final day of that year that China reported its first cluster of cases to the World Health Organization. In the months that followed, countless researchers pivoted to tackle the novel coronavirus that had emerged as […]
2019 Annual Report: December – Ending the Year on a High Note
2019 Annual Report: December – Ending the Year on a High Note
OMRF is named Oklahoma’s best place to work—again.
2019 Annual Report: October-November A Homegrown Success Story
2019 Annual Report: October-November A Homegrown Success Story
“Dr. McEver used his knowledge to make life better for people who suffer from sickle cell disease.” Mary Long
2019 Annual Report: August-September – Fighting Autoimmune Disease—and Bioterrorism
2019 Annual Report: August-September – Fighting Autoimmune Disease—and Bioterrorism
Republican and Democratic legislators unite to announce a pair of major federal grants to OMRF.
