Dr. Isabelle Denry’s innovative research continues to pay off. The NIH awarded Dr. Denry a 2-year grant for $424,875 to contine developing a self-assembled gallo-silicate microsphere material with unique blood-clotting properties. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The American Cancer Society awarded Dr. Sukirth Ganesan, assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics, a Young Investigator Seed Grant (Institutional Research Grant) of $30,000 for his proposal, “Mapping the Microbial-Immune Axis in Oral Chronic Graft-versus-Host-Disease.” Read more on the College of Dentistry website. 

Dr. Teresa Marshall has been elected vice president for the University Faculty Senate for the 2020-2021 academic year. In the two following years, she will serve as president and immediate past president, respectively. Dr. Marshall is the second faculty member from the College of Dentistry to be elected to the position. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

One of the major challenges for pediatric dentists and pediatricians is that caregivers of young children know what they should do, but they often aren’t motivated to do it. Dr. Weber-Gasparoni is working to meet that challenge in her 2-year $600K+ NIH grant. Read more on the College of Dentistry website. 

Although we are all extremely disappointed that the traditional commencement ceremony for our graduates had to be canceled. There will be a live-streamed virtual commencement celebration on June 5, 2020 at 3 p.m. We are also asking for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to submit congratulations to the class of 2020. The results will be collected on the College of Dentistry website. 

Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation awarded Dr. Julie Reynolds, assistant professor in the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, and Dr. Jennifer Hartshorn, clinical associate professor in the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry,  a $200K grant for their two-year project, “Improving access to dental care in nursing facilities via teledentistry: A demonstration project.” Read more on the College of Dentistry website.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research awarded Dr. Azeez Butali, associate professor in the Department of Oral Pathology, Radiology, and Medicine, a 5-year grant exceeding $3.2M. Dr. Butali’s project, “Refining the Genetic and Genomic Architecture of Non-syndromic Orofacial Clefts,” aims to identify new, genetic variants of cleft lip in African populations with the goal of providing new insight into the pathogenesis of cleft lip. Read more on the College of Dentistry website.