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Discoveries That Make a Difference

OMRF awarded $3.5 million to study ovarian aging

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As women hit their mid-30s, ovaries begin to experience chronic, low-level inflammation. Although it’s too faint to be felt, this inflammation foreshadows the end of their peak reproductive period and, years later, the onset of menopause.

Two Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientists have received a $3.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to study what triggers this inflammation. Their findings could ultimately help extend female fertility and delay menopause.

The National Institute on Aging, part of the NIH, awarded the five-year grant to Sarah Ocañas, Ph.D., and Michael Stout, Ph.D.

This new research will build on their discovery that specific immune cells begin to accumulate in the ovaries around the same time fertility begins to decline. With the help of immunologist Pepe Alberola-Ila, Ph.D., the team identified the specific types of immune cells that change during ovarian aging, providing new insight into the inflammatory process and helping reveal additional targets for future intervention.

Stout hopes the research will answer a fundamental biological question: “Does inflammation drive ovarian aging, or does ovarian aging trigger inflammation? Once we understand which comes first, we can begin looking for ways to intervene.”

Ocañas will look at why aging begins earlier in ovaries than in the rest of the body. She believes it may be related to the monthly menstrual cycle.

“Each time an egg is released, the ovary must heal itself,” she said. “Over decades, this repeated cycle of slight damage and repair may may lead to the chronic inflammation and scar tissue that are hallmarks of ovarian aging.”

Determining the earliest age-related inflammation, the OMRF researchers believe, could lead to potential therapeutic targets to extend reproductive health and improve overall health as women age.

“You have to understand what’s going on biologically – and why – before you can develop treatments,” Stout said. “That’s what this research is about.”

Their grant is No. 1R01AG099844-01. Previous funding from the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality provided preliminary research that made the NIH grant possible.

OMRF hosts science demonstration event for young professionals

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About 100 young professionals saw biomedical science in action this week during an outreach event at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.  

The April 21 “Science Lounge” event was hosted by OMRF’s Ambassadors group, which was created to generate awareness among their peers about the foundation’s work.

Ambassador Kelsey D’Emilio of Edmond said such events are crucial to share the scientific advancements being made in her home state to an age group that otherwise may have limited knowledge about OMRF.

“I had no idea this place existed until I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was urged to come home from the East Coast for treatment,” she said. “So to come home and discover the best treatment available literally in my backyard and to see my health restored, it’s an amazing thing, and I want to share that with others, because this place is worth their support.”

Likewise, Ben Coldagelli of Oklahoma City said he had no knowledge of OMRF until he was approached by a former work colleague, Kevin Henry, now senior director of philanthropy and outreach for OMRF. Coldagelli said touring the labs and eventually becoming an Ambassador taught him about “the incredibly important scientific progress taking place here every day.”

During the evening’s live demonstration, guests watched scientist and avid cyclist Matt Bubak, Ph.D., reach his cardiovascular limit on a stationary bike. As Bubak pedaled against ever-increasing resistance, his mentor, Benjamin Miller, Ph.D., explained why this test, known as a VO2 max, is the best indicator of a person’s longevity.

“The VO2 max tells us the maximum rate of oxygen your body can consume and use during intensive exercise,” said Miller, an exercise physiologist and head of OMRF’s Aging and Metabolism Research Program. “The higher your VO2 max score, the higher your endurance capacity and heart health.”

At Miller’s urging, guests yelled encouragement as Bubak neared the point of tapping out. His ultimate ceiling was a VO2 score of 47.1. “He’s not going to beat Lance Armstrong in a race, but he’s really fit,” Miller quipped.

Guests also visited two booths at which scientists explained the relevance of their expertise.

At one, Caleb Marlin, Ph.D., showed how artificial intelligence – gained through thousands of human tissue, blood and urine samples – is helping predict kidney damage progression in people with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease.

At the other booth, data scientist Gideon Hallum displayed color-coded images of two lungs – one diseased and one healthy – to illustrate how high-throughput data provides fast, critical context and perspective to researchers.

OMRF President Andrew Weyrich, Ph.D., told guests about the statewide, grassroots effort that launched OMRF following World War II and noted that the parents and grandparents of some attendees may have been involved in that effort.

“In addition to being a research institution, we’re also a training institution that prepares future scientists from all over the world,” he said. “We also hope to train the community about who and what we are, and that’s where you come in – to help us spread the word.”

OMRF dinner raises $660,000 for MS research, clinical care

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This year’s MS Advocate Award Dinner raised $660,000 to fund patient care and research for multiple sclerosis at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

OMRF’s vice president of philanthropy, Penny Voss, announced the total to conclude the annual event, which was held Thursday evening at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club.

The event honored the late Lori Dillingham of Enid, a longtime patient of OMRF physician-scientist Gabriel Pardo, M.D., at the foundation’s Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence. She died at age 56 in 2023.

“Lori was an advocate simply by the way she lived with MS – graciously,” said Pardo, a neurologist who treated Dillingham for more than two decades. “She remained resilient throughout her journey, and it was admirable to witness.”

In OMRF’s MS Center, Pardo and his colleagues care for more than 3,000 patients each year from across Oklahoma and the region. All live with MS, a progressive disease of the central nervous system.

At OMRF, patients receive comprehensive, team-based care that includes neurological consultation and disease management, neuro-ophthalmology, infusion services, clinical trials, physical therapy, spasticity and mobility evaluation, and wellness education, regardless of their ability to pay.

Members of Dillingham’s family accepted this year’s MS Advocate Award on her behalf.

“OMRF and Dr. Pardo were an incredible part of Lori’s journey,” said her brother Chad Dillingham. “He was not just a doctor to her. He was a friend and a spiritual leader for the entire family.”

Jed Dillingham said his sister understood that she wouldn’t live to benefit from improved treatment options resulting from MS research conducted at OMRF. “But she knew that her journey would improve the lives of others.”

Serving as presenting sponsors for the dinner were the Chickasaw Nation, the Clyde R. Evans Charitable Trust, the Dillingham Family and the Hume Family Foundation. Jim and Lou Morris served as event co-chairs.

Providing entertainment were The Evasons, a husband-and-wife team who combine telepathy and magic.

“This dinner has become a highlight for so many people,” said OMRF President Andrew Weyrich, Ph.D. “It reminds us of how far we’ve come in helping improve the lives of those with MS – and how much more remains to be done.”

New OMRF grant points toward treatments for brain injuries, diseases

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With his first significant grant from the National Institutes of Health, an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist will investigate how bone marrow forms inside the skull. His findings ultimately could lead to improved treatment options for brain injuries and diseases.

The grant awarded to Hae Ryong Kwon, Ph.D., is part of a program to test new ideas or collect early data toward a potentially larger grant later. His $341,000 award covers two years of study.

Kwon is a research assistant professor at OMRF and studies a protein called PDGF, which is critical to wound repair.

Our bodies require a careful balance of this protein. Too little causes inadequate wound repair, while too much leads to excessive collagen buildup, resulting in thickening and scarring in tissue and bones. Kwon will investigate how a specific receptor for the protein contributes to the formation of the skull’s bone marrow.

“The PDGF receptor appears to play an important role in this process,” he said. “Early results suggest that when this receptor is activated in bone-forming cells, bone marrow grows more.”

Because skull bone marrow is so close to the brain, Kwon said it may someday be possible to help physicians monitor brain diseases or injuries. For example, changes in skull bone marrow may help doctors detect brain damage earlier or track how a disease is progressing.

Scientist Lorin Olson, Ph.D., who serves as a mentor to Kwon at OMRF, said the new studies could one day lead to new ways to deliver therapeutic treatments to the brain. “The brain can be quite difficult to treat, so using skull bone marrow as a pathway or delivery site would open new possibilities for treating brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.”

Kwon received the grant, No. R03DE034789-01A1, from the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research, part of the NIH.

OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant

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A three-year grant from the American Heart Association will fund an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist’s study of an autoimmune disease that sometimes results in organ failure.

Charmain Johnson, Ph.D., received the American Heart Association’s Career Development Award, which comes with a $240,000 research grant.

Johnson will study the role of a protein called RIPK3 in systemic sclerosis, a disease that affects about 300,000 Americans.

In systemic sclerosis, white blood cells mistakenly attack the body, causing chronic inflammation, vascular damage and progressive tissue scarring in skin and other organs.

Johnson will investigate whether excessive production of RIPK3 causes blood vessels to become leaky, creating a pathway for white blood cells to escape and contribute to tissue scarring. She hopes to show that the protein’s absence leads to fewer white blood cells traveling to the lungs.

“My study focuses on the lung, as it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic sclerosis and currently lacks effective treatment,” Johnson said. “I expect to find that without RIPK3 in the blood vessels, we can slow disease progression.”

The findings ultimately could lead to a treatment aimed at preventing interstitial lung disease, a primary cause of death associated with systemic sclerosis.

Johnson is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of OMRF’s vice president of research, Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., who called Johnson’s research “extremely promising.”

Separately, the American Heart Association recently awarded a two-year, $70,000 grant to Irma Gryniuk, a graduate student at OMRF who will investigate two eye diseases marked by the abnormal growth of retinal blood vessels.

Griffin, who received grants from the American Heart Association as a graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher, understands the role they can play in launching a researcher’s career.

“An AHA award keeps young scientists invested and committed to cardiovascular biology because it makes them feel like they’re part of the research community,” Griffin said. “The awards I received as a trainee helped keep me in the field for 30 years.”

OMRF secures $3 million to study methamphetamine addiction 

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The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has received a $3 million federal grant to investigate how methamphetamine triggers a vicious cycle of addiction in the brain. 

By the end of the five-year National Institutes of Health grant, OMRF’s Mike Beckstead, Ph.D., hopes to make discoveries about addiction that will apply not just to meth but also to other drugs.

“I think what we learn about brain responses with meth will also be relevant for cocaine, and it may also be transferrable to opioids,” said Beckstead, who holds the Hille Family Foundation Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research at OMRF.

According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, more than 2 million Americans use meth each year. Among U.S. adults who reported using the drug in the past year, more than half met the criteria for methamphetamine use disorder.

With few exceptions, meth addiction worsens over time. While there is no treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Beckstead hopes to change that.

With this grant, Beckstead aims to better understand neurotensin, a molecule within the brain’s reward system. His research involves mouse models in which neurotensin receptors have been removed from various cell types. 

“We have reason to believe that inhibiting neurotensin in one or more cell types causes the mice to seek less methamphetamine,” Beckstead said.

Beckstead thinks his study could someday lead to a treatment that acts on neurotensin to suppress the brain’s reward system related to meth and potentially other addictive drugs. Any potential therapeutic would be part of a comprehensive treatment program that includes existing behavioral therapy methods or programs, he said.

“When grant reviewers compared Dr. Beckstead’s application against others from around the country, they scored it in the top 3%,” said OMRF President Andrew Weyrich, Ph.D. “That score reflects both its high scientific merit and its potential impact.”

In other words, said Weyrich, “The scientists who approved this grant see the potential for the research to lead to a breakthrough in treating meth addiction.” That, he said, would be “monumental.”

Beckstead’s grant, No. R01 DA062881, was awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the NIH. His lab previously received funding from the Presbyterian Health Foundation for preliminary research leading to this grant.

OMRF scientist on the hunt for body’s ‘four-leaf clover’

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As a boy, Patrick Gaffney wandered the meadows of southern Minnesota with his father, each on a quest to find the perfect symbol of their Irish heritage. 

“I had no idea then that the four-leaf clover results from a genetic mutation,” said Gaffney, who now researches genetic diseases at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. “I just knew it represented good luck, and I loved the challenge of trying to find one before my dad.”

OMRF physician-scientist Patrick Gaffney, M.D.

A physician-scientist, Gaffney leads OMRF’s Genes and Human Disease Research Program, where eight labs, including his own, seek to better understand genetic mutations in humans with less fortunate results than a four-leaf clover.

The three-leaf clover, or shamrock, is a traditional symbol of St. Patrick’s Day. It is a perennial wildflower native to Ireland and other parts of Europe that now grows almost worldwide.

Around one in every 5,000 has four leaves. As with the clover, genetic mutations in humans result from DNA typos.

“Your DNA is sort of like a massive and extremely detailed cookbook for your body, with individual recipes telling your body how to grow, function and repair itself,” said Gaffney, who holds the J.G. Puterbaugh Chair in Medical Research at OMRF.

Everyone has genetic typos, and usually they are benign, meaning they have no harmful effects.

“But imagine if a typo in that cookbook said to add two cups of salt instead of two teaspoons of salt to your favorite potato soup recipe,” Gaffney said. “A typo in our DNA can have consequences far more profound than a pot of inedible soup.”

Gaffney’s lab studies mutations with serious ramifications. For the past 20 years, he has worked to narrow the list of thousands of potential genetic variants linked to the autoimmune disease lupus.

Lupus is a chronic illness that can cause widespread inflammation and organ damage. It affects more than 200,000 Americans, about 90% of whom are female. Existing treatments mainly focus on managing symptoms and preventing flares of the disease.

Gaffney’s task is gargantuan, as the human body has roughly 60 million genetic variants spread across 20,000 different genes. Still, his lab has made significant headway. Computer modeling and advanced gene sequencing technology have helped Gaffney shrink the number of possible variants that trigger the biological processes that lead to lupus.

“Discovering the exact mutations would be the first step in designing more targeted lupus treatments,” he said. “Pinpointing them would be very much like finding a four-leaf clover.”    

OMRF hosts Putnam City students for Junior Scientist Days

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Penelope Gaither just got a huge head start on the prep work for her future career choice.

The eighth grader at Western Oaks Middle School was among 25 students chosen to represent their schools during this week’s Putnam City Junior Scientist Days at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

For as long as she can remember, Penelope’s dream has been a career in health care, although early on that dream involved becoming “a unicorn doctor.” She has since homed in on human care, narrowing her someday occupation even further to treating or researching neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer’s.

Penelope Gaither, an eighth-grader at Western Oaks Middle School, learned how to use a pipette during OMRF’s annual Putnam City Junior Scientist Days on March 3, 2026. At right is her OMRF mentor, Sarai Badillo Salazar.

For Junior Scientist Days, Penelope not only learned from an OMRF Alzheimer’s researcher, but performed the first-ever experiment in the scientist’s new lab. Her task involved extracting DNA from a strawberry, using dishwasher soap, rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter.

Penelope’s peers performed a variety of other experiments during the two-day annual event, which exists to thank the district for 51 years of continuous support.

Some students paired male and female fruit flies, each bred with the same genetic mutation. Others calculated the protein content of a raw egg. Still more examined sections of mouse heart tissue and learned the difference between an artery and a vein.

Penelope was chosen to represent her school through an essay contest. She called Junior Scientist Days “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and noted “the amazing coincidence” of conducting the first experiment in the lab of a scientist who shares her passion for understanding Alzheimer’s.

Her specific scientific interest comes naturally, as Penelope’s great-grandmother was diagnosed two years ago with the most common form of dementia. “I try to see her as often as I can while she can still remember me,” Penelope said.

While students were learning the basics of laboratory research, teachers and parents toured the foundation and heard from OMRF scientists focused on cancer studies.

OMRF created Junior Scientist Days after the district designated OMRF as beneficiary of its Putnam City Cancer Drive in 1975. Since then, the effort has raised $4 million for cancer research at OMRF. That research has led, among other things, to an experimental brain cancer drug now undergoing clinical trials.

“Putnam City has been an incredible partner in OMRF’s cancer research for more than half a century,” said OMRF Assistant Director of Donor Relations Katherine Jackson, who coordinates the event. “This event is one small way we can show our gratitude – and perhaps even light the path for tomorrow’s scientists.”  

Rare Disease Day has special meaning for OMRF scientist

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Rare diseases affect an estimated 300 million people worldwide – so many that the last day of February is set aside each year to recognize them.

For Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist Wan Hee Yoon, Ph.D., this year’s Rare Disease Day carries more significance than usual. It comes the same week that The American Journal of Human Genetics published his lab team’s discovery of an ultra-rare neurological disease.

Yoon led an international coalition of scientists who found that mutations of a single gene, NRDC, caused the disorder. In the process, they identified 16 children afflicted with it.

This marks Yoon’s fifth discovery of a rare neurological disease, each caused by separate gene mutations. As with the previous four, this disease has devastating neurological effects.

For Yoon, whose lab focuses on unraveling mysteries like this one, the discovery culminates 14 years of study into NRDC.

His research began in 2012, when Yoon, working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Baylor College of Medicine, discovered severe neurological issues in fruit flies bred with a mutation of NRDC. Four years later, a California boy was found through genetic testing to have a mutation of the same gene.

“But with just one known case at that time, we couldn’t prove that this mutation caused his condition,” Yoon said.

In 2021, a second case was confirmed in Turkey. This drew scientists from eight other countries to begin examining the effects of missing or malfunctioning NRDC genes.

Collaborating with Yoon, they found that fruit flies without a working version of this gene died early. But when scientists gave them a normal NRDC gene, the flies survived.

They have since found that 14 more children, primarily in Middle Eastern countries, had the same disease-causing mutation in NRDC. All had profound intellectual disability and abnormally small brains. Six died before their first birthday, and three others died before turning 3.

“Dr. Yoon excels at the painstaking, prolonged science necessary to identify the mutations behind these rare, incapacitating conditions,” said Benjamin Miller, Ph.D., who chairs OMRF’s Aging & Metabolism Research Program.

While Yoon’s latest discovery is neither a cure nor a treatment for the rare, unnamed disease, it cast light on mysteries that will need to be solved for those one day to become possible. “In that sense, our discovery moved us one step further in understanding how the human body works,” he said.

Yoon’s research was supported by grant No. R01 NS121298 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, and by the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

OMRF adds new brain researcher

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The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has added Amanda Sharpe, Ph.D., to the faculty of its Aging & Metabolism Research Program.

Sharpe, an associate professor, studies how chronic low levels of inflammation in the brain can affect the entire body. She comes to OMRF from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where she was an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy and also collaborated with OMRF scientists.

“I’ve worked closely with OMRF scientists for the past decade,” said Sharpe. “I’m excited to officially become part of the OMRF team, which I hope will strengthen both my own research and that of my colleagues.”

Sharpe received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Ohio Northern University and her doctorate in pharmacology from Wake Forest University. She completed postdoctoral training at Oregon Health & Science University.

At OMRF, in addition to running her own research lab, she will serve as director of OMRF’s new preclinical behavioral suite. This shared scientific resource will help OMRF scientists use experimental models to accelerate the process of moving laboratory discoveries to the clinic, with an eye toward developing new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Dr. Sharpe strengthens our growing group of researchers who study the brain,” said Benjamin Miller, Ph.D., who chairs the Aging & Metabolism Research Program. “She brings new expertise that will benefit many investigators throughout OMRF.”

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