For almost a decade, Dr. Julie Holloway has been the head of the Department of Prosthodontics at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. But service to her department only tells part of the story. Over her 28-year career in academic dentistry, Dr. Julie Holloway has been a model of excellence in research and in educating and mentoring advanced prosthodontics students, and she has served as a key leader in her department at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, and in the prosthodontics profession more generally.

As a researcher, she has:

• Been a co-investigator in large research grants, including two NIH-funded R01s;
• Published 54 journal articles, 27 of them during her 10 years at Iowa;
• Authored 3 book chapters;
• Presented numerous abstracts at local, regional, national, or international meetings and conferences.

As an educator and mentor, she has:

• Taught extensively at both the predoctoral and postdoctoral level;
• Published numerous articles on dental education;
• Directed the program in advanced education for prosthodontics residents at both Iowa and Ohio State for well over a decade;
• Served as thesis advisor for five Master’s students in prosthodontics (3 at Iowa);
• Served as a thesis committee member for 28 other Master’s students in prosthodontics (11 at Iowa);
• Received the Garver-Staffanou Prosthodontic Program Director's Award for Excellence from the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics in 2018 (shown below on the right).

Dr. Terry Lindquist, associate professor in prosthodontics, spoke glowingly of Dr. Holloway’s contributions as an educator and mentor.

Lindquist said, “She instituted changed the Prosthodontic curriculum by creating modules with the pre-clinical courses which benefitted both students and the faculty.”

“She understood the benefits and found ways of adding or doing what she could to support digital dentistry in the department for the graduate program and the faculty,” Lindquist added.  

As a leader in the prosthodontics profession, she has served as:

• President of the American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics (shown to the left); 
• President of the Carl O. Boucher Prosthodontic Conference;
• Treasurer of the American College of Prosthodontics;
• Committee member for the Prosthodontics Review Committee for the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA)
• Board member on the Board of Directors for the International Association for Dental Research Prosthodontics Group

These lists speak for themselves, but her personal impact at the College of Dentistry and the Department of Prosthodontics go well beyond these accomplishments as her students and colleagues can attest.

When Dr. Holloway came to Iowa in 2011, she started the annual tradition of serving homeless patients or veterans in need for National Prosthodontics Awareness Week. The Department of Prosthodontics has also provided care each year at the Iowa Mission of Mercy.

Dr. Lindquist expressed her appreciation for Holloway’s support and her consistent acknowledgment of what Lindquist and other faculty members contribution to the Department of Prosthodontics.

Dr. Salahaldeen Abuhammoud wrote his Master’s thesis under Dr. Holloway’s direction and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Prosthodontics.

“Dr. Holloway is one of those rare individuals that combined excellence as a clinician, educator, mentor, and research, and her demand for perfection inspired me to be a better prosthodontist” Abuhammoud said. “That is why she is such a national and inspirational leader in our profession,” he added.

Dr. Michelle Burson is one of Dr. Holloway’s current graduate students in the Advanced Prosthodontics residency.

“Dr. Holloway is an example of the kind of prosthodontist that I want to be,” Burson said. “When you have a problem, she has an answer or does what she can to help you solve it,” she added.

“She encouraged me to be a prosthodontist, pushes me to be my best, and I use the techniques that she has taught me every single day,” she said.

For Burson, however, what stands out is how much Holloway cares about her students and patients.

These accounts are why Dr. Lindquist said, “You could see devotion to teaching the graduate students… in the laboratory or clinic, as she patiently reviewed with them the fundamentals and advanced aspects of prosthodontics.”

As Dr. Holloway moves to France after her retirement on May 3, she wishes everyone a fond “Adieu”.

For the past decade, Iowa has had the honor and privilege of having Dr. Isabelle Denry, one of the world’s foremost experts in dental ceramics, on our faculty. After several years in a private dental practice in France and completing a master’s degree in dental biomaterials, Denry decided to begin an academic career. In 1987, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Biomaterials and Biophysics at the University of Paris School of Dentistry, and she went off to earn her PhD in Odontological Sciences from the University of Paris School of Chemistry in 1989. She came to the United States as a research associate in the operative dentistry department at UCLA in 1990, and later went on to establish her own career as an independent researcher at the Ohio State University beginning in 1991 and full professor in 2006. After 20 years at Ohio State, Denry brought her innovative research and expertise to Iowa as a professor in prosthodontics and as a researcher in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, where she has served since 2011.

After a remarkable and fruitful 34-year academic career, Denry will be retiring from Iowa on May 3, 2021. Over her career, she has:

• Received an IADR Distinguished Scientist Award recognizing excellence in the field of dental materials (2019);
• Received the IADR Innovation in Oral Care Award (2020);
• Secured large research grants, including two NIH-funded R01 and three R21 awards;
• Published 59 journal articles, 15 of them during her 10 years at Iowa;
• Co-authored a two-part textbook, and wrote 7 book chapters;
• Obtained 4 US patents;
• Presented numerous abstracts at local, regional, national, or international meetings and conferences

With almost 5,000 citations over her career, including one first-author publication with over 2,000 citations, Denry has become one of the world’s greatest authorities in the development, use, and understanding of the structure and clinical uses of ceramics in dentistry.

And her recent work has taken her well beyond a purely dental context with her invention of a novel and effective blood-clotting agent, for which Denry and the University of Iowa just filed an International patent application.

Denry attributes her success as a researcher to her exploratory and entrepreneurial methodology.

She’s always looking for new angles and possibilities, potential applications of novel materials, as well as innovative experimental approaches.

“I like to think outside the box and I am excited to try high risk/high reward experiments. Often the results are inconclusive; but scientists need to explore new possibilities—I was trained to be rigorous but audacious at the University of Paris and that’s really what science is about,” Dr. Denry said.

Denry also lives out that approach with her students, according to Kan Wongkamhaeng, a PhD student in oral science. With Denry’s high risk/high reward experiments, “Experiments do not always go how we wanted,” he explained. “And Dr. Denry would encourage me by explaining that she expects that many experiments will not work, and she would say, ‘That is the meaning of word, ‘research.’”

Dean David Johnsen expressed his high regard for Denry saying, “Isabelle Denry has been an inspiration as a scientist who impacts the world of dental materials, as a mentor who makes a difference in the lives and careers of many, and as a role model of integrity and dedication at the College of Dentistry.”

Associate Dean for Research Jin Xie sees these same qualities in Denry—excellence as a researcher, colleague, and mentor.

He added, “During this past year, I saw her wisdom, insight, and expertise on full display as she served on the college’s research proposal advisory panel to review grant proposals for the 2020 seed grant initiative. Her comments and advice were valuable and important, especially for our junior faculty members, and it has made a difference for our entire college.”

For the past decade, Denry has been an invaluable member of the College of Dentistry. As she moves back to France in the coming months, her impact here at Iowa will continue to be felt. The image on the right shows Dr. Denry and Dr. Julie Holloway after France won the World Cup in 2018.    

Although dentists often prioritize technical skill, patients generally aren’t able to evaluate differences in skill and they tend to care much more about how a dentist makes them feel. This central insight was one of fourth-year dental student Hannah Klaassen’s findings from her student research project, which she began four years ago and published in 2020 in the Journal of Dental Education.

Klaassen began the project during her first year of dental school as a part of the Dental Student Research Program, which provides opportunities for students to learn about and conduct cutting-edge research in the oral sciences.  

The College of Dentistry had been consistently collecting open-ended patient feedback after visits, and Klaassen used these responses as the basis for her study.  

“Taking patient feedback in their own words is helpful for identifying what patients notice and what aspects of patient care are positive and what isn’t,” Klaassen said.

After reading through the comments, Klaassen developed a coding system that allowed her to group and classify similar kinds of responses.

In particular, Klaassen noted that patients are particularly interested in (1) the emotional care they felt at an appointment, (2) the personal connections they made with staff, (3) the clear communication of expectations, and (4) clarity of communication between provider and patient and across the various departments and front desk teams at the College of Dentistry.

“Communication is what makes or breaks the patient experience, and all other central areas of concern were intertwined and related to that. Patients care less about technical skills and more about how we make them feel,” Klaassen explained.

In October 2019, Hannah Klaassen, who was a third-year dental student then, presented this research project at a Noon Presentation offered to the entire college.

Dr. Mike Kanellis, associate dean of clinics at the College of Dentistry, said of the presentation, “It is very interesting and timely.”

The study was published in the Journal of Dental Education in September 2020.

Klaassen’s experience as a student researcher has been formative for her. She initially started conducting research because she was interested in specializing after dental school, and she didn’t realize how much of an impact it would have on her.

“This research has given me an outsider and patient perspective on dentistry that I wouldn’t have known, and that’s invaluable,” Klaassen said. She added, “I hope to continue incorporating that into my own practice going forward and analyzing patient feedback in private practices. I think there is a lot we can learn from our patients.”

More broadly, the focus on research at Iowa has made a big difference for Klaassen too. Klaassen “100%” recommends that students get involved in the Student Research Program.

Speaking of her experience as an author going through an extensive review process for publication, Klaassen said, “I’m much more critical now, and I don’t just accept things at face value. The curriculum at Iowa on critical thinking and research is good, but my research experience in the Student Research Program complements it very well.”

 “You don’t understand how much it will impact you,” she added.

And one of the biggest impacts for Klaassen has been having Dr. Marchini as a mentor.

Speaking of Dr. Marchini, Klaassen said, “There are a hundred different ways that he helped me. He gave me the skills for conducting research and publishing it, but he also gives me great advice about patients and applying research to particular cases, especially during third-year rotations and treatment planning.”

Not content to rest on her laurels, Klaassen is working on another research project examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected dental student stress levels.

Millions of people receive palliative care each year in the United States. Many of these individuals can live several years while receiving palliative care.  Although oral health conditions, including dry mouth, infections, and oral pain among others, are extremely prevalent and can significantly affect their quality of life, the great majority of these individuals receive no oral health care prior to death.

Addressing these oral diseases can help maintain dignity and improve quality of life for older adults receiving palliative care. It can also reduce aspiration pneumonia, life-threatening septicemia and other systemic complications. Additionally, preventive care and early treatment are much more cost-effective than reacting to complications resulting from these oral health conditions.

Thus, Dr. Xi Chen and his team of researchers are working to change the paradigm of oral health care for these older adults. Oral health care has not, thus far, been integrated into daily palliative care practices, and physicians often treat oral health as a less important issue for this population, which in turn results in patients and their caregivers not appropriately valuing oral health care.

To begin changing the way that dentists and physicians think about oral health care for this population, the National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Xi Chen and his research team a $425,000 R21 award.

As a part of the ongoing effort to advance palliative dental education and patient care at University of Iowa, this research builds on Dr. Chen’s early study with palliative care patients and their caregivers to identify barriers and solutions to both personal and professional high-quality oral-health care.

This particular research project will identify patients at the University of Iowa Palliative Care clinic, and conduct oral examinations and perform qualitative interviews with the patients and their caregivers to determine the patient’s oral health care needs, treatment goals, and care preferences. This information will be helpful for developing an intervention designed to increase oral health awareness among palliative care team and increase dental referrals for their patients. The research team will also evaluate the feasibility of integrating a proposed intervention into daily personal palliative care practices over a six-month period.

In addition to this intervention, a palliative dental practice building in the University of Iowa Palliative Care clinic will also be developed to provide on-site assessment and consults for palliative care patients requiring dental referrals.

Dr. Chen’s team including co-investigators Dr. Steven Levy, Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Dr. Timothy Thomsen, Department of Internal, Stephanie Gilbertson-White, PhD, APRN-BC and associate professor in the Department of Nursing, and Mary Ellen Macdonald, PhD, at the McGill University Faculty of Dentistry. 

Dr. Liu Hong, associate professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and the Department of Prosthodontics, was awarded a supplemental $125K subcontract from the National Institutes of Health via the company NaturemiRI. The goal of the project is to help develop a synthetic bone-graft substitute that promotes high-quality bone growth in alveolar ridge of dental patients, thereby offering a new tool in the treatment of craniofacial defects and tooth extractions performed in anticipation of dental implantation

Synthetic bone-graft substitutes are promising alternatives to current standard treatments for oral and craniofacial bone defects. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small, non-coding RNAs that have emerged as critical transcriptional regulators in stem cell differentiation and regeneration. Previous research findings demonstrate that significant potential exists to develop novel therapeutics for bone regeneration of craniofacial and periodontal bone defects by targeting miRs, and miR-200a specifically.

The NaturemiRI, LLC R&D team has developed the Plasmid-based microRNA inhibitor system (PMIS), a non-toxic, nucleic acid-based method of microRNA inhibition. This particular research project is part of an overall series of projects intended to validate and commercialize a PMIS-infused collagen sponge for use in clinical dentistry. Specifically, Dr. Hong’s team expects to show that a PMIS construct inhibiting miR-200a (PMIS-miR-200a) promotes high-quality bone growth in the alveolar ridge of dental patients, thereby offering a new tool in the treatment of craniofacial defects and tooth extractions performed in anticipation of dental implantation.

This project aims to optimize the in vivo osteoinductive capacity and alveolar bone regeneration of PMIS-miR-200a adsorbed in collagen sponges and determine its toxicity risk using an animal model.

Whether it is fostering on-the-ground clinical experiences for our graduates, developing a curriculum closely tailored to the needs of 21^st century dentists, promoting cutting-edge educational innovations, or leading the way in dental education scholarship, the University of Iowa College of Dentistry is a worldwide leader in the field of dental education. According to Dean David Johnsen nurturing a culture of inquiry and respect is crucial to the Iowa experience.

One of the most consistent messages from our alumni is that their vast amounts of clinic experiences prepared them well to excel as dentists. Graduates from the college have as much experience in ADA recognized specialties as any dental graduates in the country. Both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the college has been a leader in clinical activity for our predoctoral dental students, ranking fifth in the nation in total clinical activity despite having significantly fewer students than higher ranked dental schools. In the Big Ten, Iowa has nearly twice the clinical activity in the fourth year than does each other dental school.

This level of clinical activity is matched with Iowa’s innovative and unique curriculum, spearheaded by the college’s Associate Dean for Education and Curriculum, Dr. Michelle Krupp. The overarching goal of the curriculum is to transform dental novices into independent, competent, and autonomous dentists over the course of four years beginning with foundational knowledge and limited clinical experiences through focused educational and clinical experiences in a wide range of dental specialties in the third-year, and culminating with a vast amount of clinical experiences during the fourth year where students synthesize and integrate what they have learned as they apply it in clinical experiences in the Department of Family Dentistry. This curriculum is infused with a focus on critical thinking and implementing evidence-based practices, and despite the educational and clinical challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, the faculty, staff, and students at Iowa have continued to grow and thrive.

This unique and transformative environment has also fostered a dedicated group of researchers and clinicians who are experts in the field of dental education. Two of our faculty members, Dr. Satheesh Elangovan and Dr. Leo Marchini are on the editorial board for the Journal of Dental Education, the flagship journal in dental education.

Additionally, each year, the American Dental Education Association offers national webinars on important topics in dental education on a wide variety of topics. From June through November, University of Iowa faculty and staff have presented three of these national webinars, including Dean David Johnsen’s webinar, “Critical Thinking in Dental Education,” drawing from his co-authored publications with many UI dental faculty members expressing the thinking of experts in discrete manageable steps that allow students to see, understand, and reproduce in assessments the thinking of experts in a variety of fields.

It also included Dr. Ahmed Mahrous, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Prosthodontics, whose webinar, “Where Are We? Virtual and Augmented Reality in Dental Education” drew from his cutting-edge research describing how digital technology and techniques can replace physical objects, like teeth, models, and so forth. Such an approach gives greater flexibility and availability for dental education, and this research has resulted in numerous publications, and Dr. Mahrous and Dr. Amira Elgreatly, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Operative Dentistry, received an Iowa Challenge award to develop a entrepreneurial project based on this work.

The third webinar was presented by the college’s embedded social worker, Kirsten Flick, and Ann Synan, patient representative specialist and communication coordinator, entitled “Taking CARE of Barriers: How Social Work Impacts Dental Education.” Flick and Synan spoke about the value of taking a social-work perspective in patient care and its great impact on patient care and improving access to care.

These snapshots into the educational landscape at Iowa give a small glimpse of the large tapestry of talent and energy that the college has dedicated to its educational enterprise. That’s why Iowa will remain a leader in dental education.

Dr. James S. Wefel was a deeply-valued faculty member of the College of Dentistry, who wore many hats in his 40 years of service (1972-2012). He was affiliated with the Department of Pediatric Dentistry and the Dows Institute for Dental Research (now the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research). He was a well-known professor, researcher, published author, distinguished international speaker, mentor, and innovator. Above all, he was a devoted friend, and he genuinely cared for the College of Dentistry and the people whose lives he touched.

The research award honors the contributions of Dr. Wefel to the College of Dentistry in the fields of Cariology and Dental Sciences. It is intended to encourage and assist promising students in their research endeavors.

The award committee: Dr. Karin Weber-Gasparoni, Dr. Xian Jin Xie, Dr. Jeffrey Banas, Dr. Steven Levy, Dr. Teresa Marshall, and Trudi Westfall are proud to announce the Inaugural James S. Wefel Dental Research Award 2020 recipients:

Chukwuebuka Ogwo (Mentor: Dr. Steven Levy; Department of Preventative and Community Dentistry) Predicting the Risk and Trajectory of Dental Caries Using Machine Learning Algorithm

Olajide Obe (Mentor: Dr. Cristina Vidal; Department of Operative Dentistry) Interaction of Odontoblasts with Products from Bacteria at Different Stages of Lesion Progression Modulate the Protein Expression and Activity of Cathepsins

Yun Jung Kim (Mentor: Dr. Justine Kolker; Department of Operative Dentistry) Evaluation of the effect of fluoride topical agents on the prevention of demineralization adjacent to resin modified glass ionomer restorations in vitro

Congratulations to all students and mentors for receiving such a prestigious award! Their names will be displayed on a new plaque at the entrance of the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and we wish them success in their research.

Be advised, the application cycle for the 2021 award begins soon! Applications are due May 15, 2021.  Please contact Mrs. Trudi Westfall in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry for more information.