NIH Funds New Center for Genomic Regulation
The NIH has awarded a new five year effort, led by Dr. Freeman, to establish a Center for Genomic Regulation at OMRF. This Center, co-directed by Dr. Gorbsky, will support development and expansion of research into how DNA is copied, stored, and used in cells. The Center will support four new investigators at OMRF (Drs. Kirkland, Donczew, Finn, and Krishnan) as they establish and expand their labs. The Center will also have research cores in Epigenomics and Artificial Intelligence to the support this work. Ultimately the goal of the Center to make Oklahoma a hub for biomedical research in this area.
$3.7 Million Awarded from NIA for Alzheimer’s Research
Dr. Freeman and collaborators at OMRF (Drs. Beckstead, Rice, and Sharpe) have received a new award from the National Institute on Aging. This project is examining the role of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in neuroinflammation with aging and Alzheimer’s. Activation of immune processes in the brain with aging and Alzheimer’s may be both an adaptive and deleterious response by the brain to maintain function. These studies over the next five years will examine a variety of modulations of these processes and how they affect cognition, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration. Dr. Freeman was on our local news station KOCO talking about the new grant.
National Research Service Award F30 for Dr. Kellogg
Collyn Kellogg, Ph.D. have received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA – F30) Fellowship for M.D./Ph.D. training. His project – ‘Regulation of Microglial Function by Major Histocompatibility Complex I in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease’ will support the completion of his Ph.D. research and M.D. training. Specifically, his project will examine the hypothesis that the increased expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex-I and their receptors is a mechanism through which microglia can signal cell-autonomously to themselves or cell-non-autonomously to other microglia to induce phenotypic switching to a more reactive phenotype. This is one of only five F30 fellowships to be awarded in Oklahoma in the past decade.