The International Team of Implantology (ITI) has awarded Dr. Shankar Rengasamy Venugopalan, Dr. Satheesh Elangovan, and Dr. Erliang Zeng $50,000 to study the epigenetic mechanisms leading to peri-implantitis. The principal investigator of this grant, Dr. Shankar Rengasamy Venugopalan, is an associate professor in the Department of Orthodontics. The co-investigators are Dr. Satheesh Elangovan, professor in the Department of Periodontics and Dr.Erliang Zeng, associate professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Computational Biology. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The application to Iowa’s Summer Health Professions Educational Program (SHPEP) has launched!  Apply for this free 6 week immersion experience & be guaranteed an interview for our DDS program.  Find the application and program details here! 

The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Richard Smith (Carver College of Medicine) a 5-year grant for over $3.1 million for his team’s project, “Non-Syndromic Hearing Loss - A Collaborative Study.” Dr. Azeez Butali is a co-investigator for the project. Read more about the grant and Dr. Butali’s role on the College of Dentistry website.

The Dean’s Club reception was held on April 15, 2019 at the Brown Deer Golf Club in Coralville. Dr. Chris Barwacz, associate professor in the Department of Family Dentistry and the Craniofacial Clinical Research Program, received the James H. and Hermine E. McLeran Award because of his excellence as an educator and his commitment to patient-centered care. Read more about Dr. Barwacz and see photos from the reception on the College of Dentistry website.

Dr. William Synan, D.D.S., was recently recognized with the 2019 Daniel M. Laskin Award for Outstanding Predoctoral Educator in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Huojun Cao, assistant professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and the Department of Endodontics, a 2-year grant for his project, “Computational Method for Identification of Master Transcription Factors in Craniofacial Tissues.” Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research has funded a new 2-year contract totaling over $650K with Dr. Steven and colleagues at the University of Iowa. The project is designed to manage and share the 28 years of data previously collected as part of the Iowa Fluoride Study and the Iowa Bone Development Study. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The National Institute of Nursing Research awarded Dr. Xi Chen, associate professor in preventive and community dentistry, a two-year R21 grant totaling over $426K for his project “Functionally-tailored Oral Care Intervention for Community-dwelling Older Adults with Dementia and Their Caregivers.” Read more about the project on the College of Dentistry website.

Dr. Emily Lanzel (visiting assistant professor in OPRM) received a $25K grant from the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation for her project, “Salivary biomarkers for diagnosis of childhood Sjögren syndrome.” Read more about the project on the College of Dentistry website.

The American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF) awarded Dr. Kyungsup Shin (Orthodontics) a $20K grant for his project “Fracture Energy Assessment Using CBCT: a pilot study for predicting risk of Post-Traumatic Craniofacial deformities.” Read more on the College of Dentistry website.