Presbyterian Health Foundation awards $3.7 million in grants

FROM STAFF REPORTS

More than 30 research and clinical projects, as well as scientific equipment and a researcher recruitment package, will be funded from $3.73 million in grants announced Monday by Oklahoma City’s Presbyterian Health Foundation.

The grants will go to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. The grant award categories include seed projects, bridge funding, scientific equipment and recruiting assistance.

“As biomedical research grants become exceedingly difficult to receive from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations, it is exciting for Presbyterian Health Foundation to be at the forefront and begin filling that gap,” said PHF President Tom R. Gray III. “These grants will increase the research dollars going to experienced and emerging scientists at OUHSC and OMRF and will allow Oklahoma researchers to continue their important work. It will also support them as they pursue medical discoveries and future funding opportunities.”

More than two-thirds of the grants — $2.65 million — will go to the OU Health Sciences Center for research on cancer, stroke, obesity, aging and heart disease, as well as scientific equipment. Grants were awarded to senior-level scientists and clinicians, who often collaborate in teams, as well as faculty who are in the early stages of their careers.

“Investments from PHF tremendously accelerate and enhance our OUHSC research programs,” said Jason Sanders, senior vice president and provost at OU Health Sciences Center. “The funding is vital in helping our researchers take their investigations to the next stage of discovery.”

One OU Health Sciences Center project focuses on communication among nerve cells in the aging brain, as well as information processing and memory function in the nervous system. Researchers hope to achieve progress in the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Another project will examine a strain of the Clostridium difficile bacterium, which is the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections.

At OMRF, researchers will benefit from almost $1.09 million in grants for research into autoimmune illness, retinal disease, cancer and age-related muscle loss. A grant will also provide funds for a new scientist — Michael Beckstead — whose work focuses on neurodegenerative diseases. Beckstead, who will join OMRF in September from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, studies the role dopamine neurons play in Parkinson’s disease and drug addiction.

In addition, three other OMRF scientists will use the grants for a new geneediting technique known as CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. The research will enable OMRF researchers to study blood vessel formation, lymphedema and heart disease.

“Funding of this type provides a huge boost to OMRF’s research efforts,” said Dr. Stephen Prescott, OMRF president. “Many research projects hold great promise but lack the resources needed to succeed. When local champions like Presbyterian Health Foundation step in to support that work, it opens many exciting new doors.”

Since 1985, the Presbyterian Health Foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $160 million.