These competitive $30,000 awards are intended to help tenure-track assistant professors develop competitive proposals that can secure awards with external funding. As part of the award, the OVPR supplies grant consultation and support, and substantive written critiques to help recipients improve their projects. In the study, Bowers will investigate injections of extended-release therapeutics in the periodontal ligament. Dental practitioners currently use periodontal ligament injection to deliver local anesthesia safely and predictably to the gums and bone surrounding teeth. Bowers hopes to model how modified solutions would flow after injections, aiding in the development of a novel, non-invasive method to deliver regenerative, pain-relieving, or antimicrobial therapeutics. This is the second year in a row that Iowa Dentistry has received an award.