University of Oklahoma researchers are working to understand why cancer screening and early detection rates are significantly lower in Oklahoma and are taking steps to reverse those numbers.

The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents approved an ambitious plan in Tulsa today to incrementally increase enrollment in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program in the OU College of Medicine at OU Health Sciences by more than 40% over the next five years – a strategic initiative designed to address the critical demand for additional health care professionals in Oklahoma.

The University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health celebrated the graduation of its first class of doctoral-level occupational therapy students this month. The OU program is the first accredited occupational therapy doctoral program in the state of Oklahoma. The program, which serves students in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, was recently changed from a master’s program to a doctoral program in order to widen opportunities for graduates in the future.

The prestigious Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes, an honor bestowed by OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, will be awarded this fall to Professor Dr. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health. She is also Chair in Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes at Technische Universität München, School of Medicine. She is being honored for her research to understand the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes and efforts toward its prediction, early diagnosis and prevention. 

In medicine, moving a breakthrough from the lab to the doctor’s office often involves navigating a dizzying maze of bureaucratic and financial obstacles. Most health care startups – 90% by some estimates – fail to find a path to profitability. But one Oklahoma City-based company is poised to become an exception. Fourteen years after its founding, Moleculera Biosciences is emerging from the startup labyrinth.