A University of Oklahoma researcher has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate how pancreatic cancer uses cholesterol to survive chemotherapy. By uncovering how tumors use this essential nutrient to grow and evade treatment, the research could identify new ways to treat one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

New research from the University of Oklahoma demonstrates how an aggressive form of breast cancer co-opts the body’s own immune system to attract nerves that fuel tumor growth.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, visited the OU Health Campus on Saturday, Aug. 1 to learn more about the University of Oklahoma’s flagship academic health system and its efforts to improve health outcomes across the state. Oz was joined by members of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation, OU leadership and tribal partners.

A University of Oklahoma researcher is part of an international team developing a new way to discover obesity drugs using human cells instead of animal models, an approach that could speed the development of more effective and affordable treatments. The effort is supported by a $12 million grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

For decades, scientists believed that photoreceptors in the retina relied primarily on neighboring support cells, known as the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), to remove waste. While the RPE is still responsible for clearing away the worn-out tips of photoreceptors each day, new findings from the University of Oklahoma reveal that photoreceptors also perform much of their own internal housekeeping. The study is published in Cell Death & Disease.