Basic Biomedical
Research
Clinical Research
OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine
is the youngest of the OSU Colleges. It was established as a free-standing medical
college to meet the state’s needs for primary care physicians, especially
in underserved/rural Oklahoma. In 1988 the college merged with Oklahoma State
University, a land-grant institution with a similar rural/extension mission.
The merger did, however, effect a major change in mission for the College of
Osteopathic Medicine as it was now a member of one of the two major research
institutions within the state. As such, there has been a concerted effort to
enhance the research and graduate education activities on campus. As the college
is located in Tulsa, it has found itself in the midst of an expansion of higher
education in Tulsa. It makes up a small but growing core of basic and clinical
biomedical researchers from which expanding programs in research and graduate
education are evolving.
In 1997 a new Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences was approved for the Tulsa
campus. The first student graduated in 2000, and currently fifteen students
are enrolled in the program, three of which are dual-degree (D.O./Ph.D.) candidates.
The program has been well received and applications far exceed the capacity
of the small graduate faculty. Also in 2000, the State Regents approved a Masters
level program in Forensic Sciences. This program is multidisciplinary and will
involve faculty from most of the colleges of OSU. It is slated to accept its
first student in 2001. In addition to these programs, a Masters program in biomedical
sciences will be submitted in 2001 for approval by the state regents. This program
will complete the already successful Ph.D. program and will better meet the
diverse needs for quality graduate education in northeast Oklahoma.
The expansion of graduate education programs will and already has done more
to establish a viable environment for biomedical research and training in Tulsa
and northeast Oklahoma. Long-term plans include expansion of faculty numbers
in basic sciences to forty, roughly twice the current size. To support this
growth, plans include the construction of new research and teaching facilities
on the new OSU-Tulsa campus. The growth of quality biomedical research programs
in Tulsa will help assure Tulsa’s competitiveness for expanding related
industries within the state for the future.
As in any medical college, research falls into two broad categories: Basic Biomedical
Research and Clinical Research.
Basic Biomedical Research
Basic sciences is organized into three multidisciplinary departments. Those
departments are Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry/Microbiology, and Pharmacology/Physiology.
Among the faculty making up these departments, several areas have grown to become
focus areas or evolving centers within the research program. Among these are
neurosciences, genetic and molecular biology, endocrinology, and renal/cardiovascular
physiology. The new Forensic Science program will also drive an expansion of
faculty in the areas of toxicology, infectious diseases, and DNA forensics.
One of the largest new centers is in the area of neuroscience, with investigators
working on questions of pain perception, neuroimmunology, artificial vision,
and the neuroscience of aging. A second area is cardiovascular research. In
this area various members of the faculty from several disciplines are working
independently or as teams on such questions as (1) the effects of diet on the
cardiovascular system, (2) the protective effect of estradiol on the cardiovascular
system of women, (3) the effects of stress on the cardiovascular system, (4)
renal physiology as it pertains to hypertension and stroke, and (5) endocrine
mechanisms in the CV system.
Other areas of interest include arthritis, alcoholism/alcohol metabolism, tumor
immunology, reproductive endocrinology, and several studies relating to infectious
diseases (i.e., immunology, virology, bacteriology, and parasitology). Examples
of externally funded projects include a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded
study on the effect of nerves on kidney function; two OCAST funded studies on
(1) the genetic analysis of IV foocytes and embryos and (2) the effect of peptide
YY on Collecting Duct Function; a National Institutes of Health, FIRST Award
that is studying cytomegalavirus in baboon tissues for potential use in human
transplantation; and a Cancer Research Institute funded project which is studying
melanoma vaccine. A hypobaric chamber, provided by the U.S. Air Force, serves
as a core facility at OSU-COM and provides hypobaric testing for pilots in the
armed forces and private airlines as well as a research tool to attract research
dollars in the aviation health sciences. Another core laboratory maintained
by OSU-COM is an Electron Microscopy Core Laboratory, which supports faculty
research and is available for contract work with outside programs. OSU-COM is
also expanding its horizons via collaborations with scientists at Tulsa University
and the H.A. Chapman Institute for Human Genetics. Four scientists at the Chapman
Institute have been given adjunct faculty status in the OSU-COM Department of
Biochemistry and Microbiology and have received graduate faculty status at OSU.
These actions all represent additional steps by OSU-COM to become the hub for
biomedical research in northeastern Oklahoma and the Tulsa metropolitan area.
In an increasingly competitive market for funds to perform research, the program
at OSU-COM has been able to continue its slow but steady growth, contributing
to the academic environment of the college and also making contributions that
should ultimately improve the quality of life for the citizens of Oklahoma.
It is hoped that as the programs continue to grow through the addition of new
research faculty and expanding graduate programs, the OSU-COM campus will become
a resource for the foundation for northeast Oklahoma’s growth and expansion
of health related industries and technologies.
Clinical Research
Clinical research takes many forms at OSU-COM by involving basic original research
as well as a rapidly growing number of sponsored drug trials. The mission of
the college has remained in the area of primary care and rural health. With
those focuses there are two evolving centers within this division: a Center
for Women’s Health and an Institute for Rural Health. With this in mind,
much of the research evolving has been in the primary care disciplines of Family
Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics/Gynecology. OSU-COM
also sponsors a variety of programs through its Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences and the Oklahoma Area Health Education Center (OkAHEC).
These projects have included a laboratory and field study on psychological factors
in cardiovascular disease, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Another area of interest is in field research pertinent to program evaluation.
Also, several federal and state grants have been funded supporting health promotion
and prevention of alcoholism, breast cancer, drug abuse, suicide, and type II
diabetes.
The college has also developed a unique core facility for higher education.
That facility is referred to as the Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine.
It houses two large multiperson hypobaric chambers and one large hyperbaric
chamber which are available for hyperbaric medicine applications and aviation
high altitude training and research applications.
Residents in all clinical departments are required to pursue some form of scholarly
activity. Many of these physicians become involved in research projects overseen
by faculty, ranging from new drug trials to the study of basic questions pertaining
to various medical problems or diseases. Expanding numbers of clinical faculty
in areas such as Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and OB/GYN
should result in significant increases in clinical research activity on campus
over the next few years. Current research topics include areas such as OMT in
Otitus Media, wound healing, respiratory distress/asthma, and the treatment
of HIV. Several faculty in these departments contract with pharmaceutical companies
to test and develop new drugs in OSU-COM’s clinics.
