Our WorkThe Foundation is helping to fill the hole in the development of novel diagnostics, treatments, and cures

Medical Research

From the very beginning, The William K. Warren Foundation (“Foundation”)

has been advancing science toward better diagnoses, treatments, and cures of the diseases that afflict mankind. Today, the Foundation continues to leverage local resources and make enduring contributions to medical research to improve lives, reduce societal costs, and relieve human suffering.

As pharmaceutical company drug discovery programs have become less efficient, academic drug discovery efforts have been receiving more recognition.* The William K. Warren Foundation has repeatedly partnered with academic institutions such as Vanderbilt University and The University of Notre Dame to advance drug discovery in areas of interest to the Foundation. In particular and through the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, the Foundation has helped fuel Vanderbilt’s efforts to enhance drug discovery to, eventually, better treat psychiatric and other brain-related illnesses.

In 2007, The William K. Warren Foundation created the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (“LIBR”) in Tulsa as a long-term endeavor to generate solutions to some of the human body’s most vexing problems…problems that are, today, called “mental illness,” will, in the future, be solutions called “mental health” or “wellness.” In the meantime, research is needed to bridge the gap between problems and solutions. LIBR is achieving the benchmarks of a successful research institute and is dedicated to taking the scientific ideas from hypothesis to the clinical bedside. The Foundation’s funding has empowered LIBR researchers to investigate scientific hypotheses that were too novel for other funding sources. To date, LIBR has been awarded 31 grants from various federal and state agencies as well as contracts with major pharmaceutical companies. Collaborations with research universities continue, and scientific research papers are published in the world’s top journals every year. These benchmarks of LIBR’s success are resulting in expansion of facilities and modalities, as well as intellectual property that may one day make a serious dent in mental illness. In the research world, this is real progress.

*Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2019

The Foundation

also supports other northeast Oklahoma organizations that directly improve wellness and provide care.

There is particular interest in organizations with proven strategies to better prevent, diagnose, and treat mental illness.

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