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

In the Words of Dr. Philip Silverman • Majorie Nichlos Chair in Medical Research

Learning your genetic “secrets” can be a deeply emotional issue. Can you live happily without knowing? Or not? You need to sort out how you’ll deal with it beforehand, because once you have the results, the “gene’s” out of the bottle.

Some diseases—sickle cell anemia, Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis—are the result of a single gene. We can test for those diseases. But we can’t stop them. At least not yet.

Would you want to know you were going to get sick if there was little doctors could do to help you?

Employers can require drug testing. Can genetic testing be far behind? Would it be constitutional?

The majority of diseases arise from the interplay of many genes. That’s the way it is with cancer and heart disease. So most of the time, genetic testing only gives you a probability. The rest is about lifestyle, factors like exercise, diet and smoking—things you should be concerned about anyway.

If your parents died young of some disease, that’s an obvious red flag. In that case you don’t need predictive testing. Many lives could be saved if people just paid attention to those lower-tech warnings.

My father died at 56 of a heart attack. I don’t need to know more than that. I just do all I can do to avoid the same fate.