OU awarded $9.7 million to fund molecular biology research

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $9.7 million grant funding to OUs research in molecular biology.

Oklahoma Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE, gives grants to institutions doing biomedical research in order to strengthen their infrastructure, according to the website.

Ann West, a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and the project director for the grant, said many opportunities are now open because of the money.

One of the things these funds will allow us to do is upgrade some very sophisticated instrumentation in our core facility, West said. Our current [X-ray machine in Stephenson Life Science's Research Center] is about 12 years old now.

There are plans to build another facility, West said.

Wests research focuses on molecular structures of macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. The research then can be applied to developing new drugs, treatments and better understanding of diseases, such as cancer.

Were interested in what is the shape of those molecules, what are their three-dimensional structures, because then we can glean something about how they function, she said.

Project funds also will go to junior investigators who are just getting started in their career and need funding to get their projects off the ground.

Dr. Blaine Mooers, who works in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, is someone who is benefiting from the grant. The grant will allow Mooers and his team to create more copies of RNA, and he will benefit from the access to the new X-ray machine in Norman, thanks to funds going to Wests team.

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OU awarded $9.7 million to fund molecular biology research