OMRF gets $48M grant for autoimmune, anthrax studies
Two grants worth up to $48 million will allow Oklahoma researchers to continue their work on autoimmune diseases and anthrax exposure.
With money coming from the National Institutes of Health, a federal agency devoted to medical research and funding, scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation will have another five years of support.
Up to $36 million will renew the mission at the Oklahoma Auto immunity Center of Excellence, which investigates lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
“These projects partner clinical scientists with basic research investigators, as well as with patients, to try and understand where autoimmune diseases start and how they progress so that we can better treat these very, very difficult diseases,” said Dr. Judith James, vice president of clinical affairs at OMRF.
Autoimmune diseases affect one in 12 Americans. One of those diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, has its first-ever prevention trial based at OMRF.
“We have the first RA
prevention trial and the very first in the world lupus prevention trial,” James said. “The study goes on for anywhere from a year to three years, but we're actively recruiting. We think that will be recruiting maybe for up to another year for those trials. And then we'll be bringing other trials as well to Oklahoma for other conditions.”
Another $12 million is earmarked for the work of Dr. Mark Coggeshall, principal investigator into a project that began after the anthrax attacks in late 2001. OMRF scientists are trying to understand the body's response to anthrax bacteria and find new ways to counter it.
Some of t hat r esearch found that humans are susceptible to both the anthrax toxin and the outer cell wall of the bacteria.
“So the cell wall is what's causing the pathology, not the toxins. The toxins are important. It's actually suppressing the immune system so that the bacteria are not cleared from the system,” Coggeshall said.
With this round of funding, OMRF researchers are testing potential therapies, something Coggeshall said is unusual for the work he does.
“But since we've learned it activates the complement system, the inflammation, the blood coagulation, now we can test different antibodies that target those systems to see if if they stop and even rescue the animal models,” he said.
U.S. Reps. Tom Cole and Kendra Horn were present Monday at a news conference announcing the grants. Horn said OMRF researchers are probably often asked why they do research.
“The connections and the work that you are doing leads to untold and many other benefits,” she said. “The patents, the medicine that comes out of it, the treatments. That's why you're doing the work you're doing.”
Cole praised the bipartisan work of Congress to expand federal medical research funding each year, funding that's very competitive to receive.
“So pat yourselves on the back and take a little credit, and then go save humanity in the next five years,” Cole said.