Oklahoma Center for Microbiome Research (OCMR)

The newly funded Oklahoma Center for Microbiome Research (OCMR), a statewide initiative supported by a $10.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health through the COBRE program. The grant establishes a Phase I COBRE center headquartered at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater with primary collaboration from OSU Center for Health Sciences and participation by the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, OU-Norman and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

The OCMR's mission focuses on capacity building across microbiome science, integrating human, animal and environmental health under a One Health framework. The center will provide infrastructure, mentoring and pilot funding to accelerate interdisciplinary research, training and translation. The OCMR will recruit and support five individual research projects and ten mentors for project leaders, operate an anaerobic microbiology research core unique among COBRE microbiome centers nationwide, and convene an advisory committee to guide development. Projects span oral cancer progression triggered by oral pathogens, engineering host determinants of gut microviruses, microbiome responses to dietary carotenoids, pathogen-mediated production of secondary metabolites in the aerodigestive tract, and the adolescent microbiome-gut-brain axis in opioid abuse-areas in which Dr. Koehler is listed as mentor for Project 1 and Project 5.

Beyond direct project support, the COBRE award aims to cultivate faculty to research independence; the OCMR expects to mentor ten faculty members to independent funding over the five-year phase. The center emphasizes student engagement at both undergraduate and graduate levels, reflecting OSU's research culture where students drive much of the inquiry. By investing in core infrastructure, most notably anaerobic microbiology capacity, and standardized tools and protocols, OCMR will enable researchers across disciplines, including veterinary medicine, crop science and environmental science, to leverage microbiome approaches for broad societal benefit.