Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation gets biomedical research grant

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, officials announced Tuesday. <br><br>The grant will be used to

Tuesday, September 30th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation has been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, officials announced Tuesday.

The grant will be used to mentor five junior researchers _ four at the foundation and one at the University of Oklahoma. They will work on projects involving glycobiology, the study of sugars and their role in biology.

``We want to learn more about these sugar chains, as understanding them will help us to learn more about inflammation, blood coagulation and other important disease-related processes,'' said Rodger McEver, a foundation researcher who will be the project's principal investigator.

The money will be awarded during a five-year period.

It is the third large grant awarded to Oklahoma under the National Institutes of Health's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence. The first was for $11.8 million for the foundation in 2000 and the second was for $11.4 million to the Dean A. McGee Eye Institute last year.

``This is yet another step in the emergence of Oklahoma as a center of biomedical excellence,'' said foundation President J. Donald Capra. ``Five years ago, this state had never seen a $10 million NIH grant, and now we have three.''