History
OMRF was chartered in 1946. The next year, Oklahoma Gov. Roy J. Turner launched a fund drive for OMRF that spanned all 77 of Oklahoma’s counties. By May 1949, 7,000 Oklahomans had donated and pledged $2.35 million, and construction of OMRF began.
In the summer of 1949, Sir Alexander Fleming made his first visit to the United States to dedicate OMRF’s yet-to-be-completed building. An estimated 2,500 people attended the ceremonies on July 4 of that year, where Fleming pronounced the future “bright” for what was then, in the Nobel laureate’s words, “just a big hole in the ground.”
OMRF opened its doors on Dec. 17, 1950. Since that time, OMRF has grown from 5 principal scientists to 50, and its staff has grown from roughly two dozen employees to more than 500. Securing more than $30 million annually in competitive research grants from the National Institutes of Health and other granting agencies, OMRF is a member of the Association of Independent Research Institutes. Its scientists focus on research in the areas of immunology, cardiovascular biology and diseases of aging.
Read more about this topic: Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
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