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Scientists Say TSET Grant Could Lead To Even More Medical Research Funding

Paul Kincade, research vice president at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, sits next to a new laser microscope in Oklahoma City.
Brent Fuchs
/
The Journal Record
Paul Kincade, research vice president at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, sits next to a new laser microscope in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma State University researcher Lin Liu and seven other scientists recently received a combined $1.26 million from TSET – the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust – to study treatments for COPD, a smoking-related illness.

Money in that huge state fund is used for medical research, and it could bring in even more dollars, The Journal Record’s Sarah Terry-Cobo reports:

[Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation research vice president Paul] Kincade who is also the stem cell research coalition’s founding scientist, said the TSET grants help make Oklahoma attractive to researchers. Local funding can boost a researcher’s chance to get national grants, because it shows the work has potential, he said. For every dollar the stem cell center has granted, Sooner State scientists have been able to get an average of $3 in national funding. Liu and three OSU researchers received $257,600 for stem cell projects, which then led to a $1.4 million NIH grant in 2013.

Liu used that money to buy a machine that simulates smoking, and has also bought expensive microscope and equipment for his colleagues. He’ll use this latest round of funding for the COPD research

From Terry-Cobo:

His lab is using a basic scientific discovery to turn a skin cell into a stem cell, which can then transform into a lung cell. He is examining whether lung stem cells could be used to repair or regenerate a COPD-damaged cell. “Without this funding, we wouldn’t be able to do any adult stem cell research,” Liu said. Kincade said the consortium is important in encouraging more scientists to study adult stem cells, the fastest-growing field of medical research. When the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research was created six years ago, Kincade was one of two in that field in Oklahoma. Now there are about 40, he said. “We want Oklahoma to be attractive to scientists who do this work and to those who are here, to help them realize adult stem cells could apply to their work,” Kincade said.

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