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The National Institute on Aging has awarded a $9 million grant to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and three other institutions to study age-related muscle loss.
This collaborative effort is headquartered at the University of Michigan and includes OMRF, the University of Liverpool (U.K.), and core facilities at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Over the five-year grant, OMRF scientist Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., will receive $2.1 million to research mechanisms of sarcopenia, a disease in which the body loses skeletal muscle mass.
“Every institution involved is using the same model system and has the same basic questions about sarcopenia, but each of us has our own expertise and our own toolbox, so to speak,” said Van Remmen. “By combining different approaches, we can hit a problem from several directions.”
In her laboratory at OMRF, Van Remmen will study mice that exhibit muscle wasting and weakness. ”We believe that neurons and muscles play a coordinated role in age-related muscle loss, and that this process may be initiated by certain highly reactive oxygen radicals,” she said.
Van Remmen’s hope is that by pinpointing the triggers for sarcopenia, researchers may ultimately devise ways to disrupt the process.
The new grant is the third five-year grant for the four institutions, who have been working together for a decade to understand why the muscles atrophy as they age.
“We’ve had a good run of publications come out of this partnership, and it’s exciting to have earned a third round of funding. It certainly speaks to the progress we’re making,” said Van Remmen, who holds the G.T. Blankenship Chair in Aging Research at OMRF. “By better understanding these basic mechanisms, we can know where to target interventions. You have to know what is going wrong before you can treat a condition, and we are looking for the answers.”
The grant, 5P01 AG051442-01A1, is funded by the NIA, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

By Emily D. Lammie, Director of Community Engagement

After almost 27 years of operation in the iconic building on Classen Boulevard and I-44, A Chance to Change opened its doors at 2113 W. Britton Road. Since 1979, the agency has helped guide individuals and families to recovery from behavioral health and substance use disorders. This move has made it possible to enhance the addiction and behavioral health services the agency provides.
Thursday, January 12, 2017, A Chance to Change along with the Northwest Chamber of Oklahoma City held an official ribbon cutting and open house. Additional photos, photo descriptions, and interviews are available upon request.
The new building space has not come without growing pains, however. “We are thrilled to be able to truly become a full service counseling agency in this new location. We understand that many of our clients are in some of their darkest hours, insecure, and struggling for normalcy. Uprooting our location, although much needed and very improved, can be extremely stressful. The construction, décor, and facilities were all designed with our community in mind. From soothing wall colors, to comfortable chairs, the warmth and care our clients felt in the Classen location is still very much a part of the new building space,” said Janienne Bella, Chief Executive Officer.

Chad Borin, D.O., has been appointed Chief of Staff for St. Anthony Hospital.
Dr. Borin is board certified in emergency medicine. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in medical biology. He then went on to complete his medical degree from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Following his medical degree, Dr. Borin completed an emergency medicine internship at Tulsa Regional Medical Center, and an emergency medicine residency at Integris Southwest Medical Center.
Dr. Borin is the Medical Director of St. Anthony Hospital Emergency Services, as well as an active member of the Medical Executive Committee. He is the first osteopathic physician and first emergency physician to become Chief of Staff. He will serve a two-year term and will be succeeded by Chief of Staff Elect Gregory McKinnis, M.D. in 2019.

Sunbeam Family Services announces the addition of Kevin Sonntag as the organization’s Director of Counseling.
Kevin brings an outstanding combination of passion, compassion, counseling experience, and expertise with Employee Assistance Programs. We are looking forward to his proactive leadership in our counseling services at Sunbeam,” said Jim Priest Sunbeam Chief Executive Officer.
Sonntag brings more than 16 years of experience to his new position. Before joining the Sunbeam team, Sonntag served as manager of the employee assistance program for Denver-based Centura Health, was program manager for AspenPointe Health Services, Child & Family Network (2012-2015), Colorado Springs, and behavioral health clinician for Aspen Pointe Health Services from 2009-2012.
“Sunbeam Family Services is an invaluable piece of the fabric of this great city, and I am thrilled to be joining the excellent team here. My vision is that our counseling program will provide help, hope, and opportunity to even more people throughout this community in the years to come.”
Sonntag received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in management from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in counseling from Denver Seminary.

Oklahoma has a rich agricultural history thanks to dedicated farmers. In 1998, the Governor’s Outstanding Achievement Award in Agriculture was created to recognize those who have helped lead the industry while demonstrating exemplary personal values and pursuing agricultural achievements in Oklahoma. Through Feb. 10, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF) is accepting nominations for a total of four Oklahoma Excellence in Agriculture Awards.
The award winners will be announced at a recognition ceremony on March 29, 2017 at the state capitol as part of the state’s annual Oklahoma Ag Day celebration.
Examples of eligible agriculture enterprises for the Governor’s Outstanding Achievement Award in Agriculture nominee are: livestock and crop production, agribusiness, forestry, horticulture and nursery management. In addition to considering the nominee’s production agriculture involvement, the application also recognizes leadership in agricultural and state organizations as well as additional awards and honors. The winner will be someone with at least 25 years in agriculture who derives the bulk of his or her income from agriculture or has retired from an agricultural enterprise.
Previous award-winners have represented different areas of Oklahoma as well as a variety of agricultural groups and commodities. Past recipients have guided their families and communities to success by excelling as dairymen, cattle ranchers, pork producers, wheat farmers, conservationists and educators. Uniting previous Hall of Fame inductees is their service to their communities in addition to their contribution to the agriculture industry.
In addition to the Governor’s Outstanding Achievement Award in Agriculture, ODAFF also presents the Agriculture Environmental Stewardship Award, Outstanding Legacy in Agriculture Award and Outstanding Public Service in Agriculture Award. The Legacy in Agriculture Award is the only one strictly for posthumous nominees.
Governor Fallin’s Agriculture Environmental Stewardship Award recognizes Oklahoma agriculturalists who are leaders in developing and adopting outstanding environmentally innovative agricultural practices. This award will highlight the efforts of an Oklahoma agriculture producer who is a steward of the environment and is dedicated to conserving the natural resources of Oklahoma while helping to ensure a continued supply of food and fiber.
Governor Fallin’s Outstanding Public Service in Agriculture Award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions of public service to Oklahoma agriculture. The recipient will be someone who works diligently to improve public perception of agriculture in Oklahoma. The recipient should be a person who has given time and talent unselfishly to advance the Oklahoma agricultural industry.
Governor Fallin’s Outstanding Legacy to Agriculture Award posthumously honors someone who made significant life-long contributions to Oklahoma agriculture. The unique or extraordinary contributions the individual made to Oklahoma serve as a role model for the agriculture industry.
“The Oklahoma Excellence in Agriculture Awards give us the opportunity to recognize those individuals who have made a positive and lasting impact on agriculture in our state,” said Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese.
The deadline for all nominations is 5 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10. The recipients will be selected by a committee of representatives from agricultural commodity organizations and farm and ranch organizations. Any questions regarding the nomination procedure or completion of the official nomination form can be directed to Jason Harvey at (405) 606-1477. The nomination forms can be found at www.ag.ok.gov/odaff-halloffame.htm .

Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak is offering innovative ideas on health insurance to national leaders. Doak responded today to a request from U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy asking for recommendations as lawmakers move forward with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
“If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, we should take this as an opportunity to do something different, something that works,” Doak said. “Unlike other lines of insurance, the hands of the health insurance industry have been tied by the law, unable to grow and innovate. Now is the time to open the market to see what can be done to provide greater access to affordable health insurance for everyone.”
One of Doak’s suggestions to House Leader McCarthy includes examining the use of microinsurance. This type of insurance focuses on the low-income population and has been successful in countries like India. Doak included research from David M. Dror, Chairman of the Micro Insurance Academy, on how microinsurance could work in the United States.
Other ideas from Doak include:
Permitting sale of insurance across state lines under state regulatory enforcement.
Adopting policies that expand the use of health savings accounts coupled with more affordable, high-deductible health plans.
Allowing states to enact new health reforms at the grade-school level that incorporate physical fitness and nutrition programs to deter preventable illnesses.
Letting states determine the age at which a child can remain on his or her parent’s group health plan.
Enacting legislation that protects consumers from unfair balance billing and surprise billing from individual providers like anesthesiologists, radiologists or medical service companies such as air ambulance and imaging providers.
Allowing states to pursue innovative health care delivery mechanisms including, but not limited to, telemedicine and the expansion of the technologically-based Project ECHO® for rural America.
The Oklahoma Insurance Department and Commissioner Doak will be holding town hall meetings throughout the state to talk with Oklahomans about healthcare reform. The dates and locations of those meetings will be announced at a later date.

by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Ask Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby what he’s most proud of during a term of office that dates all the way back to 1987 and you’d better pull up a chair.
The bright-eyed, beloved 30th governor of the 12th-largest tribe in the U.S. oversees nearly 14,000 employees, more than 300 tribal programs and services and more than 100 tribal businesses.
The latest in that line is a joint venture that should breathe new life into the surrounding Lake Texoma area and Southeastern Oklahoma in the heart of Chickasaw Country.
Late last year the state of Oklahoma and the Chickasaw Nation announced plans to develop a resort hotel and other amenities at Lake Texoma.
It’s an effort to resurrect a failed project that aimed at privatizing the state resort 10 years ago when it was sold to out-of-state investors.
The project excites Gov. Anoatubby on multiple levels.
“This development is another component of our economic development initiatives designed to have a positive impact on the state and local economy,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “It will directly employ dozens of local residents in a number of occupations. We believe it will also have a kind of ripple effect which will strengthen existing businesses in the area as well as bringing other new businesses to the area as a result of increasing the number of visitors to the area.”
“Tourism affects businesses from gas stations and convenience stores to restaurants, sporting goods stores, fishing guides, antique shops and farmers’ markets – and the list goes on.”
The initial plans call for the Chickasaw Nation to construct a three-story hotel, a restaurant and gift shop, a casino featuring up to 300 electronic games and as many as 10 lakefront fishing/boating cottages.
The project covers 50 acres of lakefront property, overlooking Lake Texoma and the historic Roosevelt Bridge. It also involves about 11.5 acres of land acquired by the Commissioners of the Land Office (CLO) from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.
“We believe this new development will help launch a transformation of this area into a major tourism and recreation attraction,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “This is an incredibly beautiful area with so much to offer, it is really exciting to think of the long-term impact this project could have on the area.”
Gov. Anoatubby envisions the project as the kind of place seniors can take their families. There’s something for everyone.
The hotel will include a lounge and meeting rooms, an outdoor pool and recreation area, a fitness center, gift shop, restaurant and a business center, he said.
The development will be off U.S. 70, across from the Chickasaw Pointe Golf Course near the site of the old Lake Texoma State Lodge. Preliminary plans allow for future expansion of the hotel and the construction of additional waterfront cottages.
Gov. Anoatubby said the state has so much to offer with its natural beauty. It’s one of the reasons the tribe has invested in the state through its Adventure Road program, which highlights different areas up and down I-35.
Designed to bring more tourism to Oklahoma, the Adventure Road initiative generated more than 385,000 new trips to the area last year alone, bringing in approximately $647 million in spending from March to September, according to Gov. Anoatubby.
The tribe is also investing in a new information center in Tishomingo, closely located to Lake Texoma which will complement the project.
It’s another feather in the cap of an already stellar career.
“Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of the Chickasaw people so it is gratifying to see the results of our efforts,” Gov. Anoatubby said. “Many of our services are designed to offer opportunities to pursue a higher education, advance in one’s career, or start a business.”
There are countless examples of Chickasaws who have seized those opportunities and achieved success.
“It is gratifying to see Chickasaws who have utilized tribal services, make it a point to come back home to work for the tribe.”
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said she has been a long-time believer in the potential of the Lake Texoma area to be an economic driver in Oklahoma.
“This project will create jobs and revenue for southern Oklahoma while at the same time maintaining the beauty of the site,” said Fallin. “The Lake Texoma lodge and golf course for many years were a top tourist attraction in the region. This hotel and commercial development will be the catalyst to stimulate significantly greater economic development in the future. I appreciate Governor Anoatubby’s vision and willingness to partner with the state of Oklahoma to continue our joint efforts focusing on tourism in this beautiful and strategically located part of our state.”

story and photos by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

The state of Guerrero, Mexico is a juxtaposition of two worlds.
The resort city of Acapulco, backed by the Sierra Madre Del Sur mountains spills into the Pacific Ocean.
Cliff divers entertain throngs of sunbathing tourists daily plunging some 136 feet into the crashing waves below.
But travel a few miles in any direction and you run the risk of becoming entangled in the violence and death associated with what you might expect from Mexico’s heroin capital.
Oklahoma Heart Hospital RN Shawn Watts walked that fine line a few weeks ago, going on a medical mission trip that provided help and hope for hundreds of families.
Watts realized the world is a very different place outside the walls of Oklahoma Heart Hospital South.
An outdoor covered basketball court served as the mission trip’s staging ground surrounded by a dense urban population eager to seek medical care.
Watts served as triage nurse sending patients to either a dentist, optometrist, pharmacist, family practice doctor or pediatrician based on their needs.
“They’re so worry about their kids staying healthy they wanted their kids to get vitamin shots and even antibiotics when it wasn’t appropriate,” Watts said.
At OHH all Watts has to do is walk into a supply room to get whatever he needs to take care of patients.
“They gave me a box of IV catheters, tubing and medication,” Watts said. “It’s field medicine. That’s exactly what it is.”
Fifteen minutes away was storied Acapulco.
“You hear that and think ‘Oh, how nice.’ It’s not,” Watts said. “In Mexico they develop a resort community and you go two miles beyond and it’s gone. That whole culture is gone. You have true Mexico. They have chickens hanging for sale gutted in the streets. They burn their trash in the streets at night.
“Fish are laying out all day long for sale not even iced in the market. You drive whatever direction you want to. It’s just the culture.”
So Watts assumed when he arrived he’d bunk up in a corner in someone’s house on the floor.
Little did he know he would find a resort hotel room for $43 a night.
People from all over would line up early in the morning to catch the clinic as it opened. Some rushed out the door without even taking their morning medication.
“I would check their blood pressure and it would be 180/110,” said Watts, who traveled with the medical-based Fishers of Men. “We couldn’t tell if their medicine was working for them.”
Multivitamin IV solutions, or banana bags, flowed freely for most of the day as the group did what it could for whomever showed up.
Despite residents not always having access to medical care or the medicines they needed, Watts said the culture had a few things working for it.
“You have no choice but cardiac health there because everything was uphill and you walk to everything,” Watts said. “These little old ladies their blood pressure was well controlled just on basic medicines. They didn’t use medications like we do. They used medicines that were more basic, been around for years and didn’t require monitoring afterwards. Long-term they weren’t the best but they were the most practical for that area.”
Diabetes, malnourishment and dehydration were all issues.
In the hot Mexico sunshine, Watts would go through 6-7 bottles of water daily with no access to a restroom.
“We left there at 6 p.m. and we all went to the restroom after that,” Watts said.
The days flowed for Watts.
“I triaged them so fast that I made the doctors and the dentists mad because I set up extra lines,” Watts laughed. “I had a couple CNAs with me and we did blood pressure, scales, temperatures, measurement. I started slotting them so fast the director of the mission board said ‘You come back. You organize. You’re good. You get everything done. You come back.’”
That’s no surprise. ER, ICU and now CCU at Oklahoma Heart Hospital have been Watts’ sandbox for the past 17 years.
His first calling was in applied ministry as a youth minister in an inner city.
He started doing home health on the side.
“It flowed,” Watts said. “I became an aide and did home health for four years and went to nursing school and worked three jobs during that.”
He would go to class for three hours and see patients on his lunch break before repeating the cycle in the afternoon.
“I love it. It just fits,” Watts said. “I’ve tried to slow down and thought about an office job since I’m 50. I just don’t have the gears for it.”
That’s a good thing not only for the people of Oklahoma City but the residents of Guerrero as well.

The Rheumatology Research Foundation has named Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist Darise Farris, Ph.D, as a recipient of its Research Foundation Innovative Research Award.
The award will provide Farris with $400,000 in funding over a two-year period to continue promising research in understanding the origins of the autoimmune disease Sjögren’s syndrome.
Sjögren’s syndrome is a painful autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system attacks the body’s own moisture-producing glands, inhibiting the ability to produce tears or saliva. The most common symptoms include severe dry eyes and dry mouth, as well as arthritis, fatigue and others.
The disease is believed to affect as many as 3 million people in the United States and, like many autoimmune diseases, disproportionally affects women by a 9-to-1 ratio. There is no known cure and current treatments only address symptoms, not the root cause.
In her lab at OMRF, Farris is trying to identify the proteins in patients that are causing the abnormal autoimmune response in the glands that produce tears and saliva.
“We know that Sjögren’s selectively attacks these glands, but nobody understands why those glands are targeted,” said Farris. “We believe there are unidentified salivary gland antigens, which are proteins that are the target of an immune response.”
Farris is currently pursuing two related paths of Sjögren’s research.
First, her lab is attempting to identify the proteins that incite the disease. Using special tools, scientists have isolated specific receptors from immune cells called T cells from the salivary tissue of Sjögren’s patients. They have isolated the immune cell receptors that directly touch the unknown proteins, and they hope to use them to explain why salivary tissues are targeted in the disease.
If this work is successful, it could provide the knowledge needed to better identify individuals who either have Sjögren’s syndrome or are susceptible to the disease.
The second aim is to follow up on the discovery of a relationship between the degree of activation of those T cells and reduced saliva production. Farris said. “We think this might lead to an understanding of why saliva production is defective in these patients,” said Farris.
The award was a result of research published with colleagues at OMRF in the journal JCI Insight. Farris earned her Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and has spent 18 years at OMRF researching Sjögren’s and other autoimmune diseases.
“This award is very exciting for us because it’s going to permit us to follow up on what we believe to be a fruitful line of investigation,” said Farris.
“It will allow us a bigger budget to collect needed data in order to answer these pressing questions and work toward solutions for patients suffering from this painful disease.” The Rheumatology Research Foundation was created by the American College of Rheumatology and is based in Atlanta, Ga.
“Dr. Farris’ research uses cutting-edge molecular tools to probe the causes of Sjögren’s disease that could lead to innovative therapies,” said OMRF Vice President of Research Rodger McEver, M.D.