Announcements
2010 Colgate Research Award Recipients
The Colgate Research Scholarship Award is presented to Junior and/or Senior dental students, who have shown academic distinction and demonstration of excellence in research. Since 1980, Colgate has sponsored these awards, which encourage AAWD student member to excel in the field of research. This year two of our senior dental students who are in the DMD/PhD program have received a Colgate Research Awards for 2010. Congratulations to Ejvis Lamani and Melissa Roden. The University of Alabama Birmingham received 22% of the total awards and was the only school with more than one award.
School of Dentistry Scholars’ Symposium
School of Dentistry will hosted its' Fifth Annual Scholars' Symposium on Wednesday, February 24, 2010. The Scholars' Symposium started with Poster Presentations and a Research Competition for students and others conducting research in Oral Health in either Basic Science or Clinical Research; and a lecture session with an esteemed researcher in Oral Biology and another invited speaker.
The School of Dentistry speaker for the Symposium is Gregg Gilbert, DDS, MBA. Dr. Gilbert has been a part of the UAB School of Dentistry since 2000, as Professor and Chair of the Department of Diagnostic Sciences. In 2009 he assumed the role of Chair of the new Department of General Dental Sciences. In 2002 – 2005 he was Assistant Dean (and then, Associate Dean) for Research. Dr. Gilbert received his BS in 1981 from UNC-Chapel Hill, his DDS in 1985 from UNC-Chapel Hill, and his MBA in 1999 from the University of Florida. Before coming to UAB, Dr. Gilbert was on the faculty of the University of Florida from 1989 – 2000.
Winners of the 5th Annual School of Dentistry Scholars' Symposium Research Competition
Overall Winner
Angela Gullard (Dental Scientist Training Program – 2nd Year, Pathology; Mentor: Mary MacDougall, PhD)
Basic Sciences – Predoctoral Students
1st Place – Mitra Adhami (Dental Scientist Training Program – 1st Year, Cell Biology; Mentor: Amjad Javed, PhD)
2nd Place – Haley Echlin (Microbiology; Mentor: Hui Wu, PhD)
3rd Place – Joel Anderson (Biomedical Engineering; Mentor: Ho-Wook Jun, PhD)
Clinical Sciences – Predoctoral Students
1st Place – Britany Matin (Dentistry 2nd Year; Mentor: Maria Geisinger, DDS)
Basic Sciences – Undergraduate
1st Place – Jordan Scott (Birmingham-Southern College; Mentor: Amjad Javed, PhD)
2nd Place – Jennifer Ames (University of Alabama at Birmingham; Mentor: Heidi Erlandsen, PhD)
Clinical Sciences - Advanced Studies, Residents and Postdoctoral Scholars
1st Place - Dr. Jennifer Bain (Periodontology; Mentor: Michael Reddy, DMD, DMSc)
2nd Place (tie) – Courtney Michelson (Biomaterials; Mentor: John Burgess, MS, DDS)
2nd Place (tie) – Anthony Reganato (Periodontology; Mentor: Maria Geisinger, DDS)
3rd Place – Gowri Natarajarathinam (Biomaterials; Mentor: John Burgess, MS, DDS)
Basic Sciences – Advanced Studies, Residents and Postdoctoral Scholars
1st Place – Matthew Larson (Biophysics and Physiology, Mentor: Champion Deivanayagam, PhD)
2nd Place – Gulam Yezdani (Oral Biology; Mentor: Ping Zhang)
3rd Place – Fan Zhu (Postdoctoral Scholar; Mentor: Hui Wu, PhD)
UAB School of Dentistry Professor Noel K. Childers, DDS, PhD Received the 2008 IADR Distinguished Scientist Award in Oral Biology
07/02/2008 (IADR adapted) The 2008 Research in Oral Biology Award was presented to Dr. Noel Childers, the Joseph Volker Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry. The award was presented by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) at its 86th General Session & Exhibition in Toronto, ON, Canada on July 2, 2008.
Dr. Childers' research has contributed to the understanding of the potential for mucosal immune responses to influence infection and disease in the oral cavity. Throughout his career, he has taken discoveries in antigen delivery and applied them to research in humans, especially in the area of dental caries vaccine development. Dr. Childers has also maintained a continuing research program assessing the prevalence of dental disease in children, with special emphasis on the correlation of mutans streptococcal infections with the eruption of primary and secondary teeth.
With more than 50 publications, Dr. Childers currently supervises a large project in Liposomal Recombinant Vaccine and Caries Immunity, and another project exploring Epidemiology of Dental Caries and Immunity in Children, funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), to investigate host/parasite relationships in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of dental caries in high-caries-risk populations.
Sponsored by Church & Dwight Company, the Research in Oral Biology Award is one of the 16 IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards and is one of the highest honors bestowed by the IADR. The award consists of a cash prize and plaque and recognizes outstanding research in the field of oral biology.
About the International Association for Dental Research
The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a non-profit organization with more than 10,500 individual members worldwide, dedicated to: (1) advancing research and increasing knowledge to improve oral health, (2) supporting the oral health research community, and (3) facilitating the communication and application of research findings for the improvement of oral health worldwide.
To learn more about the IADR, visit www.iadr.org.
UAB School of Dentistry Student Elected to Board of the National Student Research Group of the AADR
5/27/2008 Nathaniel (Nate) Lawson (SOD Class of 2011, 2nd Year DMD/PhD Program) has been elected to serve as President-elect of the National Student Research Group (NSRG) of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR). Nate will serve as President-elect until the conclusion of the 2009 IADR/AADR meeting in Miami, Florida. At that time Nate will become President.
Nate is excited to be able to represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry in such an auspicious organization. He is especially excited to speak for the future dental and oral health scientist which his organization represents, and will as President be able to represent them on the AADR Board and Council.
UAB School of Dentistry Students Receive Bloc Travel Awards
4/21/2008 Five UAB School of Dentistry students have received Bloc Travel Awards by the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), to attend the General Session of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) in Toronto, Ontario, July 2-5, 2008.
The Travel Award for these 5 students represents 10% of the total awards, the most for any U.S. school.
The awards were given to:
Lisa Irish (SOD Class of 2010) - presenting a poster for her research project: "Ameloblastin Mutations in Dental Oral Tumors".
Ejvis Lamani (SOD Class of 2011, 3rd Year DMD/PhD student in Microbiology) - presenting a poster for her research project: "NFI-C Protein Expression Associated with Tooth Root Formation". Ms. Lamani will also be presenting her research in the Pulp Biology Session.
Nathaniel Lawson (SOD Class of 2011, 2nd Year DMD/PhD student in Biomedical Engineering) - presenting a poster for his research project: "Evaluation of Bond Strength with the Immediate Dentinal Sealing Technique".
Mary Beth Wilson (First Year DMD/PhD student in Biomedical Engineering) - presenting a poster on her research project: "Effect of Bone MJorphogenetic Proteins on Dental Pulp Differentiation". Ms. Wilson will also be presenting her research orally in the Pulp Biology Session.
Dr. Xueming (Eric) Zhang (SOD Class of 2011) - presenting a poster on his research project: "Early Enamel Maturation observed in VDR Deficient Mice".