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Research Funding

TOTAL SPONSORED AWARDS - State FY 24                                                                                 TOTAL FEDERAL AWARDS - State FY 24
$217.3 MILLION                                                                                                                                $132.8 MILLION


OU Health Sciences has achieved its highest-ever ranking in the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings, reaching No. 102 nationally for NIH funding—a 27-spot climb in two years—placing it among the top 3.6% of institutions receiving NIH support. With $75.2 million in NIH funding in FY2024, this recognition reflects the dedication of faculty, researchers, and staff in advancing biomedical and clinical research that improves patient outcomes and strengthens the university’s impact. 


OU Health Sciences Earns $5.3 Million From NIH to Boost Cancer Research, Support Emerging Scientists

OU Health Sciences Earns $5.3 Million From NIH to Boost Cancer Research, Support Emerging Scientists


Published: Tuesday, September 17, 2024

A $5.3 million National Institutes of Health grant awarded to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences will support advanced cancer research in Oklahoma. The Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant is designed to build research capacity and help early-career researchers establish independently funded laboratories.

This is the third and final phase of the COBRE grant, which was first awarded in 2012, followed by phase two in 2017. The grant has supported and paralleled the growth of OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, Oklahoma’s National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center.

Danny Dhanasekaran, Ph.D., a professor of cell biology at the OU College of Medicine and deputy director for basic research at Stephenson Cancer Center, has led the grant’s work since its beginning.

“The phase three COBRE grant is a testament to the tremendous progress we have made over the past decade in advancing cancer research in Oklahoma,” Dhanasekaran said. “With the continued support of the NIH, we are poised to make significant strides in understanding and overcoming the challenges of cancer, ultimately improving outcomes for cancer patients in Oklahoma and across the nation.”

As part of the COBRE grant, established researchers mentor early-career researchers on important steps and pitfalls to avoid as they launch their careers. Early-career researchers conduct research and publish studies that they leverage to apply for larger grants to sustain their labs. They also become immersed in the collaborative world of team science.

“Research has become so multifaceted that one group won’t have all the expertise,” Dhanasekaran said. “For example, one researcher may be very good at teasing out how a cancer cell ‘talks’ to another cancer cell to promote growth, but they may not be as good at drug delivery, so they partner with a lab that is good at that. If we want to alleviate the burden of cancer in our society, we need this collaborative approach.”

Another central aim of the COBRE grant is building technology infrastructure that is specific to cancer investigations. Stephenson Cancer Center has supported this effort to acquire advanced equipment, often sophisticated imaging technology that monitors cell growth over time and shows the internal structure of cancer cells. New research technicians have been hired to operate the equipment, a workforce-building effort that benefits Oklahoma.

Since the first COBRE grant was awarded, seven of the 10 participating early-career researchers have earned a combined $22 million in grants, allowing them to fully operate their labs at OU Health Sciences with funds resulting from the strength of their studies. Their research has also resulted in 250 journal publications that focus on the grant’s theme of drug resistance and mitigating strategies.

“Drug resistance is a major issue in cancer treatment,” Dhanasekaran said. “A patient can have surgery or receive chemotherapy to kill the primary cancer, but if it comes back, it is often drug-resistant. Our researchers are looking at several types of cancers to understand more about how they become resistant to drugs. In doing so, they hope to find a vulnerable point in the cancers where we could deliver more effective therapy.”

Advances in cancer treatment remain a great need in Oklahoma, where cancer is the second-leading cause of death. In 2023, an estimated 23,420 residents were diagnosed with cancer and 8,620 lost their lives to the disease. Oklahoma has the fourth-highest rate of death from cancer in the United States.

Approximately one of every six Oklahomans diagnosed with cancer receive treatment at Stephenson Cancer Center, which offers a high level of care driven by research discoveries. The success of the COBRE grant has contributed to the milestones of the cancer center, including National Cancer Institution designation in 2018 and its renewal in 2023. That support will continue as Stephenson Cancer Center works toward NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center status, the highest institutional honor in oncology.

“The work of the COBRE grant under Dr. Dhanasekaran has been essential to our mission at Stephenson Cancer Center,” said director Robert Mannel, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the OU College of Medicine. “Promising new researchers have established their carers on our campus, and we have built a solid research infrastructure to advance their studies. Ultimately, their discoveries will advance our ability to prevent and cure cancer for the people we serve.”

The University of Oklahoma is home to four other COBRE centers: On the Norman campus, the Oklahoma Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Structural Biology and the Oklahoma Center of Medical Imaging for Translational Cancer Research; and on the OU Health Sciences campus, the Oklahoma Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunity and the Oklahoma Center for Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging

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About the project

The research reported in this news release is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health, under award number 1P30GM154635-01. The project’s title is “Mentoring Translational Cancer Research in Oklahoma.” It is a five-year grant. 

Research Newsletter

Past Newsletters 

April 14, 2025, Newsletter 

This Week's Documents to Download and Full Newsletter

An Important Note from ORA – this is to notify the campus that the GRANTS team in ORA is currently four people short.   Please be patient and ensure your applications are submitted on time as required while we work through all proposals/requests and acquire new team members

ECRT Upgrade to ECC Deployment on April 22, 2025

Grants and Contracts Accounting is pleased to announce an upcoming upgrade to the university’s time and effort system. Effective April 22, 2025, we will transition from the current ECRT software to the new ECC platform.

This upgrade will introduce minimal changes to the system's functionality while incorporating several user-suggested improvements. We are confident that these enhancements will streamline processes and improve overall user experience.

Key Points:

  •  April 22, 2025
  •  Minimal functional changes; primarily aesthetic improvements and user-suggested enhancements
  •   The eCRT@ouhsc.edu email will continue to be the email to send all questions and concerns to.
  • All website materials will be updated including the training video.  ECC Training Link.

Thank you for your patience and continued cooperation.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Tamara Franklin at eCRT@ouhsc.edu.

Please join the Institutional Research Core Facility for a Lunch and Learn with Bruker to discuss the NanoString nCounter system.  They will also have availability outside of the presentation to discuss individual research projects.

Date:     Thursday, April 17th

Where:  BRC Room 109

When:   Presentation at 1pm

Office hours can be schedules from 9:30am-12pm and 12:30pm – 3:30pm

Registration is not needed, but please use the QR code in the attached flyer for scheduling discussions.

Required research security training supplement will be assigned through OnPoint on April 7 for all OU employees that work in research designed by their ePAF email. This supplemental training combined with the current training requirements through ORS/ORA, IT, and COI will meet the requirements set forth by the CHIPS and Science Act.  The training should take less than 30 minutes.

attached


Implementation of New Initiatives and Policies Page Now Available

We have posted an Implementation of New Initiatives and Policies page on the NIH Grants & Funding Website to pull together the latest information on recent and upcoming changes that impact applications and grants administration.

Page Highlights

  • NIH Grants and Funding Information Status. Keep up to date on how NIH grants and funding information is evolving as we align with new agency priorities (e.g., status of communications, funding opportunities, application guidance, and more).
  • Upcoming Changes. Get the latest status on in-progress initiatives like our adoption of Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support.
  • Recent Changes. Learn about key initiatives implemented in 2024 that culminated in numerous changes to grant application content and review for due dates on or after January 25, 2025 and any adjustments made to those initiatives.

WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS

The next Oklahoma Data Science Workshop is next Friday, April 18th, at noon via Zoom. This is the Zoom link:   

https://oklahoma.zoom.us/j/94661289236?pwd=WHdLYkRhMHFFQmlPUHhqQU1uNDRoZz09&from=addon

Speaker: Jindal Shah, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, OSU

Title: A Hands-On Tutorial on Using Google Colab for Machine Learning

Abstract: The tremendous increase in computational power has recently enabled phenomenal growth in the use of machine-learning models over the past decade. Jupyter notebooks offer a convenient interactive computing environment for data, code, and text. Despite its popularity, Jupyter environment installation in a classroom setting can be challenging because students use personal computers with different operating systems. Google Colab, a web-based computing environment, offers a convenient platform-independent solution for rapidly prototyping Python code. In this hands-on tutorial, I will demonstrate the basic features of Google Colab and show how you can use it for teaching and research.

Save the Date Stewart Wolf Research Day 2025 on May 16, 2025. This event is for trainees to highlight their research from the DOM, and consists of poster and oral presentations, abstract submissions, and a keynote speaker. Please see the attached flyer.

KEY DATES:

October 10, 2024                          Abstract Submission Opens

March 19, 2025 at 11:59 PM           Abstract Submission Deadline

April 16, 2025                                     Notifications Sent to Presenters about Poster and/or Oral Presentations

May 1, 2025                                        Deadline for Copy of Posters and Oral Presentations to be Submitted

May 16, 2025                                     Stewart Wolf Day Events

For any inquiries or questions about this event, please contact ryan-nipp@ouhsc.edu.