OMRF Stories

Higher Powers:
How 1,100 nuns, priests and brothers are helping OMRF researchers unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's.

Cooties in the Lab:
Whither the White Lab Coat?

Going With the Flow:
Dr. Margaret Clarke, OMRF Microbiologist.

Research Tower:
OMRF unveils the greenprint for a historic campus expansion.

Meagan's Miracle:
An OMRF discovery saves a dying college student.

Lessons In Philanthropy:
Putnam City School students learn early that giving to OMRF’s cancer research efforts is a good thing.

Prayers Answered:
Two Oklahomans suffering from a rare, life-threatening disease.

The Giver:
Jim Chapman’s generosity helped make OMRF what it is today.

Cancer From Every Angle:
OMRF researchers seeking clues to a variety of cancers.

Next of Kin:
It doesn't matter if you're a banana, fruit fly or writer; DNA is inside all your cells. Join OMRF's Greg
Elwell as he peels back his own genetic skin

The Strange Case of Tom Little
The Strange Case of Tom Little

The Comeback Kid:
An OMRF Discovery helped bring Rayna Dubose back from death, then Rayna had to learn to live again

Mighty Mice
Mighty Mice

Predicting Disease:
Live, Long and Prosper

This Is My Brain on 3-Tesla MRI

Autism: A Personal Story
Bringing up Jeremy

OMRF People
Bon Appetit

A New Birthday

Hitting the Right Note: Bob Floyd

Running Man: Gary Gorbsky

Family Matters: Kathy Moser

The Gospel According to Luke (Szweda)

Autism, Our Story

The Survivor

It's In The Genes

By Michael Bratcher

Dr. Jim Rand devoted his career to understanding how cells communicate with one another. Little did he suspect that this research would one day lead him back to his own family.

When Jeremy Rand was a kindergartener, he figured out that one-quarter of one-quarter was one-sixteenth. He knew his multiplication tables. And he read novels written for third graders. But if you asked the 5-year-old whether someone in a photograph looked happy, he couldn’t answer unless his parents used their fingers to trace the person’s mouth. Oh, Jeremy would say at last, he’s smiling.

Jeremy’s parents, Drs. Jim and Kathy Rand, had long understood that their son was different from other children. Even at four months, when the Rands moved from Wisconsin to join the scientific staff at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Jeremy became easily upset. He was extraordinarily sensitive to his environment; certain smells bothered only him, and he required soft clothing without tags inside. He clung to his mother, crying and shunning interaction with others. Was this, Kathy wondered, what all parents go through?

As a cell biologist, Kathy had devoted her life to understanding how organisms function. So she decided to take some time off to learn more about this little organism she and Jim had just brought into the world.

Meanwhile, at OMRF, Jim set his sights on learning how signals in the nervous system and brain—in effect, the body’s wiring—influence movement, function and interaction. By isolating the nervous systems of minuscule roundworms known as C. elegans, he learned about genetic disorders like muscular dystrophy. His work taught him that, much like a single wire controls the flow of an electrical current, a single mutation in a gene can change the function of the entire nervous system. Jim understood that his work could provide valuable insight into a variety of brain disorders. But it would be years before he learned that his own son suffered from one of those conditions.

More>>