Randy S. Wymore, PhD

Tulsa, OK
Director, OSU-CHS -CIMD Center for the Investigation of Morgellons Disease
Associate Dean of Curriculum
Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences and College of Osteopathic Medicine, Tulsa and Cherokee Nation Campuses

Title of Talk: “Morgellons Disease: Reality, Unreality and the Next Steps”

Abstract
Our past research has focused on attempts to identify microorganisms associated with Morgellons disease that are not found in the unaffected population. In the process of confirming and identifying bacterial species associated with Morgellons, there has been a great amount of time spent and data generated that eliminated candidate organisms. Results of this work will describe why certain putative, causative agents of Morgellons have been eliminated and others cannot. Near-term research will replicate and confirm what is known, and future research will be directed at the mechanism whereby bacterial infection causes the common symptoms of Morgellons to manifest.

Biography
Randy S. Wymore was born in Fresno, CA, where he spent the first half of his life. With transfer of college credits from Fresno Community College and Cal-State Fresno, he completed his B.S. degree in Animal Physiology at the University of California, Davis. His entire time at UC Davis was spent as a Regents Scholar. Randy Wymore then entered the Ph.D. program at UC Irvine in the laboratory of K. George Chandy, MD, Ph.D. and devoted his work to the study of potassium channels in the heart and nervous system. He completed his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics in 1995.

Dr. Wymore did his post-doctoral work on the characterization of potassium and pacemaker channels in the heart and nervous system in the lab of Ira Cohen, MD, Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After living in California and New York he moved to Oklahoma where he accepted a position at the University of Tulsa. After receiving tenure at the University of Tulsa he moved across the Arkansas River to the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences where his laboratory currently resides. Dr. Wymore is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology. He is a course coordinator of a 3 semester course titled Service Learning and Community Engagement, as well as co-coordinator of the Integrated Systems Review. Dr. Wymore teaches multiple pharmacology topics to first and second year medical and graduate students.

As the Associate Dean for Curriculum, Dr. Wymore is responsible for implementation of the 4 year medical curriculum and ensuring the curriculum meets accreditation requirements at the Tulsa campus and the Cherokee Nation campus which will open in August of 2020. Dr. Wymore is responsible for oversight of the Dept. of Medical Education, Dept. of Pathology, Office of Educational Design and the Office of Student Success.

Dr. Wymore has been a coauthor on seventeen articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has been a contributing author on one book and one review article. His most recent journal articles have been on the role of potassium channels in cancer. He now spends all of his research time working on Morgellons Disease and is the Director of the OSU-CHS Center for the Investigation of Morgellons Disease.

Dr. Wymore is a Costin Scholar and serves on the Standard Setting Committee for COMLEX Level I board exam of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME).

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Dear RM Agents and Readers,

It was Dr. Wymore whom I first contacted when I heard the description of Morgellons. That is the interesting aspect of this condition. Although, many things can be mistaken for the great imitator of Lyme; Morgellons seems to be in a class all its own.

Dr. Wymore is one of the genuine folks:)

Many Blessings,
CrystalRiver