NEWS
OKLAHOMA CITY – Scientists from a wide range of disciplines – including four Nobel Prize winners – gathered at the University of Oklahoma’s Web of Life Conference to spark interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at tackling complex diseases.
“Because diseases like cancer and diabetes do not exist in isolation, they won’t be solved by any one discipline, but by researchers from different areas working together. The Web of Life Conference is designed to facilitate crosstalk between disciplines, foster collaborations and inspire our next generation of researchers,” said Priyabrata Mukherjee, Ph.D., conference co-chair, a professor in the OU College of Medicine and researcher at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center.
During the innovative conference, dozens of researchers from around the nation and from the OU Health Campus presented their research. The four Nobel Prize winners gave keynote addresses. They were: James P. Allison, Ph.D., of MD Anderson Cancer Center; Randy Schekman, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkley; William G. Kaelin, M.D., of Harvard Medical School; and Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., of Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Additional keynote speakers were Kristi Anseth, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado at Boulder; Dafna Bar-Sagi, Ph.D., of New York University Langone Health; and Rodney Tweten, Ph.D., of the OU College of Medicine, all members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Research focused on conditions including cancer, neurodegeneration and diabetes, as well as topics such as drug resistance, novel drug delivery systems and nanotechnology. In between presentations, researchers engaged in the conversations that conference organizers envisioned.
“We were so fortunate to have exceptional speakers at the Web of Life, including our own faculty members and graduate students,” said Resham Bhattacharya, Ph.D., conference co-chair, professor in the OU College of Medicine and researcher at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center. “This was a unique opportunity to learn about exciting discoveries, some of which were presented for the first time, and to begin the discussions that will lead to interdisciplinary studies.”
The OU Health Campus has strategically developed many of its own research environments to cultivate such investigations across disciplines. Laboratory designs foster team approaches to research, and physicians interact with Ph.D. researchers to initiate ideas. Because the OU Health Campus has seven health professional colleges located closely together, partnerships have developed, for example, between allied health and cancer researchers and between pharmacy and public health researchers.
“We are creating a culture where new ideas can begin – where findings from one field can be applied to another,” Mukherjee said. “We witnessed that concept taking shape at the Web of Life conference. It takes all of us working together to develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.”
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, the OU Health Campus is one of the nation’s few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. The OU Health Campus serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about the OU Health Campus, visit www.ouhsc.edu.
The Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research at the University of Oklahoma will launch its first Sovereign Policy Intensive in September, a new program designed for elected tribal officials that focuses on understanding broadly relevant federal systems grounded in departmental structures, legislation and appropriations, and legal frameworks.
For 46 years and counting, G. Frans Currier, D.D.S., M.S.D., M.Ed., has been a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry. This year, the American Association of Orthodontists recognized his service with a conference named in his honor and the opportunity to give a lecture to his fellow orthodontists from around the nation.
The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of its current building’s public opening, as well as its impact on the university, state and beyond.
