School of Biomedical Sciences

Dr. Barta studies vertebrate growth, development, and intraspecific variation through the application of bone histology, computed tomography, and phylogenetic methods. He focuses primarily on the anatomy of dinosaurs (including birds), and other vertebrates from the Triassic and Permian periods. He is also interested in amniote eggs and nesting.

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

Dr. Alexis Jones is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation. She teaches physiology in both the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Graduate Programs.

Research Interests

• Exercise physiology
• Stress and exercise interactions
• Exercise psychology
• Women’s health

I am an evolutionary primatologist with research on primate functional anatomy, especially pertaining to feeding, as well as the paleobiology and extinction of primates and their broader faunal communities in the Caribbean and on Madagascar. This work includes computer-based FEA simulations of anatomy and landscape ecology and site taphonomy using GIS, with fieldwork involving survey and fossil recovery from flooded cave sites.

Swarup Mitra, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Mitra's research focus on the neurobiology of substance use, stress-related disorders and chronic pain. To answer these questions, his research integrates molecular, cellular, and behavioral neuroscience approaches. The lab is currently supported by multiple NIH grants and industry-funded projects.

My passion lies at the intersection of bioinformatics, research, and mentorship. I thrive on leveraging big data to uncover new scientific insights while championing open science for broader collaboration. Beyond research, I find immense fulfillment in guiding students.

As a dedicated scientist and educator, I am eager to bring my research expertise, analytical skills, and enthusiasm for student mentorship to a dynamic academic environment. I look forward to making meaningful contributions to research, innovation, and cultivating the next generation of scientific thinkers.

W. Kyle Simmons, Ph.D., is a Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences and Director of the OSU Biomedical Imaging Center.  In 2026 he was appointed the Roger Hardesty Chair in Clinical Neuroscience at OSU-CHS.  He earned his Ph.D. at Emory University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the NIMH Intramural Research Program, and has held research positions in both academia and industry. For more than two decades, his research has combined neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and assays of endocrine, metabolic, and immune signaling to investigate the biological determinants of depression, obesity, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. His current work focuses on developing new therapeutics for addiction, particularly GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gRjmf_AAAAAJ&hl=en

Dr. Dolores Vazquez Sanroman is an Associate Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS). Her research investigates the neurobiological impacts of opioid abuse, early-life adversity, and the complex dynamics of the gut-brain axis. Highlighting her research portfolio, Dr. Vazquez Sanroman serves as a Research Project Leader (RPL) on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant through the Oklahoma Center for Microbiome Research (OCMR). Her funded project, "The adolescent microbiome-gut-brain axis as a potential target in opioid abuse disorders," directly addresses how gut microbiota and molecular gatekeepers influence opioid dependence and withdrawal. Beyond the lab, she is heavily invested in leadership and advocacy, serving as President of the Society for Neuroscience Tulsa Chapter since 2017, directing diversity-focused STEM initiatives, and earning prestigious honors such as the OSU Regents Distinguished Research Award for her dedication to scientific discovery and the mentorship of graduate and osteopathic medical students.

I am a Professor and Chair of Pharmacology & Physiology at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences and Co-Director of the OSU Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program. My scholarship and teaching across medical and graduate curricula are unified by a central goal: defining how environmental exposures reprogram cellular signaling, metabolism, and immune responses to drive chronic disease, with long-standing emphases in neurotoxicology and cancer biology. I have developed broad, hands-on expertise in in vivo and in vitro pharmacology, neurochemical and toxicological methods, advanced cell culture, imaging, and mechanistic pathway analysis. My laboratory connects functional phenotyping (cell viability, oxidative and inflammatory stress, mitochondrial health, and cell behavior endpoints) with molecular profiling. Current work investigates the underlying causes of cachexia associated with pancreatic cancer, the potential involvement of common chemotherapeutic agents and the search for viable pharmacological interventions. Recent work combines chronic exposure paradigms with targeted transcriptomics (nCounter pathway panels) and complementary data mining of cancer proteogenomic resources to prioritize pathways and candidate biomarkers. A major focus of my current program is elucidating mechanisms by which persistent and emerging toxicants—including PFAS (notably chronic PFOA exposure), microplastic-associated chemicals, phthalates, and select metal/metal-oxide stressors—promote pro-tumorigenic phenotypes in pancreatic models. We interrogate coordinated dysregulation across the PI3K–Akt–mTOR axis (AKT, mTOR, RICTOR, RAPTOR, PTEN), transcriptional control nodes (FOXO1/FOXO3, GATA4/GATA6), mitochondrial quality control and longevity regulators (SIRT1, PINK1, PARKIN), extracellular matrix remodeling (MMP2/MMP9), and immune-metabolic signaling (including IDO1/IDO2 and innate immune receptors). We integrate these mechanistic endpoints with advanced genomics, including bulk and single-cell sequencing, to resolve exposure-driven cell-state heterogeneity and to link molecular signatures to functional outcomes. I maintain active national and international collaborations to strengthen rigor and expand expertise, including an international research group with Dr. Aleksandra Buha Djordjevic (University of Belgrade) and Dr. Pinar Uysal-Onganer (University of Westminster). As a department chair and program leader, I have a sustained record of mentoring trainees and junior faculty and of building interdisciplinary teams. These experiences position me to lead extramurally supported projects that integrate toxicology, systems biology, and cancer mechanisms while training the next generation of scientists in rigorous experimental design and quantitative data interpretation.

My research assesses ontogenetic growth and intra-specific variation in extinct tetrapods primarily through large-sample long-bone paleohistology, with a focus on non-avian dinosaurs. I also examine the intra-skeletal ontogenetic histology of extant tetrapods to improve understanding of bone tissue microstructures for use as a foundation in paleohistological interpretations.