10/30/2025
Earlier this month, Dr. Paul Kincade died less than a week short of what would have been his 81st birthday. A world-renowned immunologist, Dr. Kincade spent more than three decades at OMRF.
He studied the development of the immune system, with an eye toward understanding how defects in this process lead to cancers, immune deficiency diseases and autoimmune disorders. He held the William H. and Rita Bell Chair in Biomedical Research and founded OMRF’s Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program, which he led for more than two decades and is now part of the Arthritis & Clinical Immunology Research Program. His work garnered numerous honors, including a Research Career Development Award from the NIH and an NIH M.E.R.I.T. Award. In an ever-changing and increasingly competitive funding environment, his work continued to shine: He never had a grant proposal rejected, and his portfolio included an NIH grant that remained funded for a remarkable 40 straight years.
Dr. Kincade had a keen interest not only in science but also in mentoring junior scientists. In addition, he was passionate about advocating for medical research, and over his career he did so in leadership roles in national scientific societies. He served as president of both the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), the nation’s largest association of biological scientists. Closer to home, he also served as founding scientific director of the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research (OCASCR), which he helped launch in 2010.
Soon after taking the reins at OCASCR, he closed his lab at OMRF. However, he wasn’t quite done at the foundation, spending six years as OMRF’s vice president of research. Upon his retirement from that role, he became an OMRF Distinguished Career Scientist, a post he held until his death.
He was a careful, ethical and rigorous researcher. “Credibility is the most valuable thing any scientist can have,” he told an interviewer in 2018. “People must believe you are a trusted authority and one who has the highest standards of accuracy.” In a world that has become increasingly sharp-elbowed, he remained a true gentleman. “Paul was a very smart and creative scientist,” says Dr. Rod McEver, Paul’s colleague at OMRF for many years and his successor as vice president of research. “But most of all, he was kind and generous.”
