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 Adam Cohen

"That's not good," Dr. James Brewer says to me.

I blink, shifting my eyes from the watery blue of the Pacific Ocean to Brewer's worried face. We're sitting on the deck of a restaurant perched a few hundred feet above the water, our half-finished bowls of pasta warmed by the California sun. A line of gulls rides the sea breeze above us. What could be not good about this?

“You have metal in your body,” says Brewer. “And if you have any metal in your body, MRI”—magnetic resonance imaging—“can be a problem.”

Don’t worry, I tell him. It was only jaw surgery. Surely a few pins won’t interfere with his 15,000-pound magnet. And the operation was 13 years ago. Brewer pokes his sesame noodles and shakes his head. “Older is worse.”

But I have not flown 1,500 miles just to eat lunch. I’ve traveled to La Jolla to get a brain scan in the Human Memory Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego. I want to see the future of medical research, to view my own brain through a 3-tesla MRI, a human scanner twice as powerful as any in Oklahoma and strong enough to see both the structure of my brain and what parts I’m using when I perform certain tasks.

And while I’m in the magnet, I want to learn if my hippocampus shows any signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

For the past year, Brewer has been collaborating with Dr. Rheal Towner and his team in OMRF’s small animal imaging facility. The facility is unique in Oklahoma and one of only two dozen of its kind in the nation. Using a research-grade magnet specially designed for rodents, Towner works to develop new, non-invasive techniques for studying cells at microscopic levels. These methods do not harm the animals, and OMRF’s work provides clinicians like Brewer—a neurologist—with blueprints for using MRI to diagnose and treat disease in human patients.

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