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By Jim Stafford Once a year, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) gathers scientists from across the state who are currently receiving funding from its health research program in a sort of show-and-tell educational event. Recently, about 100 OCAST-funded life science researchers assembled at the Samis Family Education Center onRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Of the more than 120 types of brain and central nervous system tumors, Glioblastoma (also called GBM) is the most aggressive — a deadly brain cancer with no cure. Glioblastomas often appear with no warning or prior symptoms. These Type IV tumors tend to produce their ownRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman In today’s world, a state’s economic growth demands investment in innovation and high-tech industries — especially for a natural resource-rich state like ours that must leverage our existing resource base to diversify our economy for the future. It’s a straightforward proposition. If we believe that more andRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Oklahoma is a great place to live. Oklahoma is a great place to work. We are a state that seems ready to seize the moment and leverage the quality of life and business-friendly advantages here to add innovation and technology-based economic development to Oklahoma’s list of “greats.”Read more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Five patients are waiting to see their doctor, each displaying different symptoms. One has a bright rash on her face. Another is suffering from arthritis. Still another has kidney failure, while the fourth patient suffers from heart problems and the fifth is fatigued all the time. TurnsRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman When Gov. Kevin Stitt announced his vision for making Oklahoma a Top 10 State, those of us representing the Oklahoma Innovation Model — comprising OCAST (Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology), the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance (OMA), Oklahoma State University New Product Development Center (NPDC)Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. That’s the common theme in today’s economy. Innovation stimulates entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurship creates net new jobs. Driving innovation through collaboration to create jobs is the entire reason for being of the public-private consortium of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and TechnologyRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman I always tell every new company that I talk to: You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. The same thing applies to the capital path. The great thing for startups in this state is that The Oklahoma Innovation Model, which is uniqueRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2019, The Oklahoman In the business of creating new high-growth companies, “trade-off” is the name of the game. From idea to IPO, from survival mode to success, entrepreneurship calls for constant prioritizing and re-prioritizing. With limited capital — financial and human — for the first few years of a startup’sRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman As keynote speaker at last week’s Oklahoma Center for Science and Technology (OCAST) Health Research Conference, James A. Rogers III, with Mayo Clinic, delivered a sobering forecast for scientists seeking to commercialize discoveries made in their laboratories. “It’s a bit of a roller coaster to be involvedRead more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman   I’m a numbers guy; lately, the number 22,000 has been stuck in my mind. That’s how many Oklahoma jobs have been created so far through the public/private partnerships of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST). When you think about it, 22,000Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoman It seems like the conversation everywhere today is about how much or how little government should or should not do. No matter which side you take in that particular debate, I believe that it makes economic and business sense for government — both federal and state —Read more

By Scott Meacham Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. It seems like the conversation everywhere today is about how much or how little government should or should not do. No matter which side you take in that particular debate, I believe that it makes economic and business sense for government — both federal andRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. In a room filled with blood donors at the Oklahoma Blood Institute’s (OBI) donation center, Jennifer Chain, Ph.D., pronounces some words that don’t easily roll off the tongue. Allogeneic. Autologous. Apheresis. Chain’s audience includes me and a pair of colleagues from the Oklahoma Center forRead more

By Greater OKC Chamber staff i2E, a nonprofit that focuses on growing innovative small businesses in Oklahoma and making a positive impact on the state’s economy, is celebrating its 20th year of investing in entrepreneurs to build successful high growth companies in the state. While i2E officially started in 1998, the need for its servicesRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. STILLWATER — A sample mixer rotates slowly in a tiny laboratory at Stillwater’s XploSafe LLC, turning small vials filled with novel materials that are part of ongoing research and development. It’s the latest iteration of some amazing Oklahoma innovation. Launched less than a decade agoRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Inside a science laboratory on the campus of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, teams of students last week attempted to connect syringes to plastic tubing and canisters filled with vegetable oil and coffee grounds. They were participating in an oil and gas extractionRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. When Joshua Hodgson was 12 years old, he lost his right leg to cancer in an amputation high above the knee. He was fitted with a succession of prosthetic limbs that often were ill fitting and painful. At first, he cushioned the hard plastic prostheticRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. TULSA — Take 45 bioscience research scientists, put them in a room together with no real agenda and you get what exactly? The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) did exactly that this week with its first Bioscience Networking Luncheon atRead more

By Jim Stafford Copyright © 2018, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) was created by the state Legislature during the depth of the oil bust in 1987. OCAST was established to diversify and grow Oklahoma’s economy through science and technology-based activities that would ensure that theRead more