Bart Ford

Dr. Bart Ford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, where he directs the Behavioral Immunology Lab of Tulsa (BILT), and an Affiliate Investigator with the OU-Tulsa Integrative Immunology Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Behavioral Immunology from the University of Tulsa, training in the laboratory of Dr. Jonathan Savitz at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, where he also completed postdoctoral work.

Dr. Ford’s current research examines how childhood adversity becomes biologically embedded, driving long-term changes in immune function and gene expression that shape health across the lifespan. A central line of this work focuses on the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), a pattern of immune gene regulation linked to chronic stress, to understand how early-life experiences influence inflammatory signaling, vaccine responses, and disease risk well into adulthood. This research draws on genomic and epigenomic approaches, including gene expression profiling and chromatin accessibility analysis, developed in part through specialized training in social genomics.

In ongoing collaborative work, Dr. Ford continues to study how cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection accelerates immune aging and contributes to the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder, including effects on brain structure and immune function.

Dr. Ford’s research has been supported by funding from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal and foundation sources. He is active in the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, where he chairs the Access and Opportunity Committee, and mentors graduate students and postdoctoral trainees in his lab.

Research Interests: Conserved transcriptional response to adversity · Childhood adversity & immune function · Social genomics · Psychoneuroimmunology · Cytomegalovirus & immune aging · Major depressive disorder