DART Advisory Boards
Two groups have been organized that participate as review and/or advisory panels for this training program. These panels are as follows:
Internal Advisory Panel (IAB)
The IAB provide guidance and critique the DART Program and administration. They evaluate student progress, oversee the SOD RAC student review process, and advise the Director, DART Leadership Group on program development and outcomes. The IAB members have been selected for their previous experience as collaborative NIH funded investigators, training program leadership, and their expertise in related research areas. These individuals, have all mentored numerous students and have long-term NIH funding track-records, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to research training programs. The IAB supplies the Director/Co-Directors with a written report evaluating the progress of the individual trainees and the general program related to our overall goals two times per year. This evaluation report is used to steer the program by identifying potential problems and strengths quickly; copies of these reports are provided to the External Review Board (ERB). The IAB consists of nine members from the UAB campus:
Gregg Gilbert, DDS, MBA is Professor and Chair for the Department of Diagnostic Sciences in the UAB School of Dentistry. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and obtained his MBA from the University of Florida . His overall research interests include health services and policy issues with specific focus in the area of aging. Dr. Gilbert is PI of the UAB SOD’s NIDCR funded U-24 and U-10 grants and serves as Chair of the IAB.
Steve Filler, DDS serves as Assistant Dean for Student, Alumni, and External Affairs. He received his DDS degree from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. He completed his postgraduate training in hospital dentistry and oral biology at the University Of Alabama School Of Dentistry. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Hospital Dentists and has previously served as the president of that organization. Dr. Filler attends all formal functions associated with recruiting.
Kent Palcanis, DDS, MSD, is Professor of Periodontology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry. He received his dental degree from Ohio State University and his Master of Science in Dentistry and a certificate in Periodontics from the University of Washington . Dr. Palcanis is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Periodontology and is active in organized dentistry where he serves as a consultant to the Commission on Dental Accreditation and as a member of the Education Committee for the American Academy of Periodontology. He is also PI for the SOD’s R-25 grant , oversees the dental curriculum and serves as SOD representative.
Madelyn Coar, DMD, MS, is the SOD’s Director of Diversity and President of the Faculty Senate. She also serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Endodontics and the Pre-doctoral Director of Endodontics. Dr. Coar received a Masters in Education from the University of Southern California . She received her DMD degree and a Certificate in Endodontics from the University of Alabama School of Dentistry. She has extensive contact with students and is a strong supporter of the dental student short-term training summer research program. As a female and underrepresented minority (African American), she is an important asset in the recruitment of female and minority students to the DART Program.
Firoz G. Rahemtulla, PhD, is Director of Post Graduate Studies in Dentistry, Past Coordinator of the Summer Dental Research Program and Chair of the SOD’s DMD/PhD Task Force Committee. He received his PhD in Zoophysiology from the University of Umeå , Sweden and completed his postgraduate training in Biochemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham .
Pat Bucy, M.D., PhD is a Professor of Pathology with joint appointments in the Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, is Director of the UAB MSTP T32 program. He is a graduate of the MSTP at Washington University in St. Louis (1981), completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis , and was an Assistant Professor at Washington University prior to moving to UAB in 1987. He has served on the MTSP steering committee since 1996 and has trained 10 pre-and post-doctoral trainees at UAB. Dr. Bucy’s efforts have refocused the UAB MSTP program by increasing the recruitment efforts, particularly for minority applicants, instituting a mentoring program for students, instituting a regular monthly seminar series focused on Translational Research, altering the course on Scientific Ethics, and changing the makeup of the MSTP Advisory Committee.
Dale J. Benos, PhD, Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, serves Program Director for a NIH T-32 Postdoctoral Research Training Grant (1986-present; 5T32DK07545-18). He has assumed from Dr. David Briles the directorship of the Short-term Training Program for Health Professionals (T35HL007473-26) just funded for an additional 5 years. Moreover, Dr. Benos has, for the past five years, served on the Internal Advisory Committee for UAB’s K-30 Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP). Dr. Benos completed his graduate training and a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke, then accepted an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Harvard Medical School , being promoted to Associate Professor in 1983. He joined the UAB faculty in 1985, was promoted to Professor in 1987, and became Chair in 1996. Dr. Benos has mentored 29 postdoctoral fellows and 11 predoctoral fellows, and has sponsored 2 visiting professors in his laboratory at UAB since 1985. During his career, he has mentored 10 undergraduate medical students, including 3 UAB Short Term Training Program trainees. He has an extensive research background in cellular physiology and ion transport. His research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating ion channels and other transporters in cells. Dr. Benos has been funded continuously as a principal investigator on numerous NIH grants since 1979. He has presented over 80 invited lectures at national and international meetings, and has published over 250 original research papers and review articles. In addition, Dr. Benos was elected Councilor of the American Physiological Society (APS), served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology Cell Physiology (1990-1996), and has just completed six years of service as Chair of the APS Publications Committee (1999-2004). He is also a section editor for Biochimica Biophysica Acta, an editorial associate for Comments on Molecular Biophysics, and senior editor of the Academic Press (Elsevier) series Current Topics in Membranes. Dr. Benos has also served or is serving on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Placenta, SHOCK, Biology of the Cell, and Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and has served as a regular member of the Cell Biology and Physiology II NIH study section (1985-1989).
Susan Rich, PhD, is Associate Dean for Life Sciences in the Graduate School and Professor in the Department of Microbiology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is also Project Director of the Department of Education-funded UAB Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Program in the Biological Sciences and a member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Scientific Policy Subcommittee on Training and Career Opportunities. Preceding her recruitment to UAB in January 2005, Dr. Rich was Assistant Dean for Postdoctoral Education and Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Education, Emory University School of Medicine, serving approximately five hundred postdoctoral fellows and their faculty advisors. She was also Program Director, Cottrell Foundation Fellows Program at Emory. From 1973 to 1998 she rose to Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine and served as Co-Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program and Director of Graduate Studies in Immunology. Her research interests involve the regulatory functions of CD8+ T lymphocytes in immune responses to histocompatibility antigens and microbial superantigens. During her tenure at Baylor she was continuously funded by NIH and other extramural sources and served as chartered member on NIH DRG Immunobiology and NIAID Allergy and Clinical Immunology Subcommittee of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation Research Committee study sections.
Jay M. McDonald, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and Pathologist-in-Chief at University of Alabama Hospital. He is Director of an NIH funded Center for Metabolic Bone Disease (one of five in the United States). He is currently principal investigator on four NIH grants, one VA grant and one NASA grant. Dr. McDonald is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. His academic career has spanned 26 years and includes Directorship of the Division of Laboratory Medicine in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for ten (10) years prior to his recruitment to UAB to Chair its Department of Pathology. He is Editor-in-Chief of the primary pathology research journal, The American Journal of Pathology. His research is focused upon understanding intracellular signal transduction pathways that transfer key information from the extracellular to the intracellular environment, resulting in coordinated cellular responses. More specifically, the role of calcium, the calcium receptor protein, calmodulin, and related protein kinases and phosphatases in 1) osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease, 2) the pathogenesis of AIDS, and 3) malignant transformation and tumorigenesis are being studied. A combination of biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology techniques are used to elucidate the critical signal transduction pathways involved in each of the diseases with the ultimate goal of modulating key signal transduction pathways as potential new avenues for therapy.
External Review Board (ERB)
The External Review Board provides impartial and unbiased input for the program's continuing success. The ERB visits the UAB campus every other year to provide an independent evaluation of the DART Program’s progress towards reaching the stated goals. ERB members are:
Grayson (Bill) W. Marshall, D.D.S., M.P.H., Ph.D is a Professor in the Division of Biomaterials and Bioengineering at the University of California at San Francisco School of Dentistry. Dr. Marshall has a long track record related to student research training at all levels serving as director of the NIDCR funded T-32 Comprehensive Oral Health Research Training (COHORT) Program at UCSF. His research focuses on two areas: 1:) clinical trials of dental restorative materials and evaluations of their failure mechanisms; and 2) structure and property relationships of calcified tissues, particularly enamel and dentin, to improve our basic understanding of these biological materials with respect to their mechanical behavior, and demineralization processes associated with bonding procedures and pathology. His group has pioneered several methods for the study of calcified tissues, and dentin in particular and used the AFM to for the first demineralization rate studies, the first nanomechanical properties studies, and have obtained high resolution non-invasive images of caries and dentin that allows the study of the three dimensional structure of caries attack on tooth structure. Dr. Marshall has agreed to serve as Chair of the ERB.
Dr. Andrew O. Martinez is Professor of Biology and Associate Dean for Minority Programs in the College of Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He graduated with honors from the St. Michael’s College, Santa Fe, NM (Biology). He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Arizona in 1974. He did post-doctoral training in the Genetics and Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine (1974-1977).In 1977, he joined the Cancer Treatment and Research Center at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine as Research Assistant Professor. In 1983, he joined the faculty of biology as Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he is now full professor. He is also cross appointed as adjunct Professor of Cell and Structural Biology at the UTHSCSA. Dr. Martinez has served as Director of the NIH-funded MARC and RISE research training programs for underrepresented and disadvantaged students at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 1990. He has served as Chair of the NIH/NIGMS MARC Review Subcommittee, member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education review panel, and Ad-Hoc reviewer for numerous NSF programs and NIH study sections and Special Emphasis panels. He has numerous publications, is actively involved in the training of graduate, undergraduate, community college and high school students. His research interests are focused in developing transgenic mouse models to study the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Marc W. Heft, D.M.D., Ph.D. is Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences and Director, Claude D. Pepper Center for Research on Oral Health in Aging. He serves on the Advisory Boards for the General Clinical Research Center and the NIH-supported K30: Advanced Postgraduate Program in Clinical Investigation. His research interests are in pain, aging, and health services research. Dr. Heft is Vice President, American Association for Dental Research and Secretary, Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences section, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a Fellow in the AAAS and the Gerontological Association of America.
Dr. Margarita Zeichner-David is a Research Professor in the Division of Surgical, Therapeutics and Bioengineering Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Dentistry. She graduated Cum Laude from the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City (Chemistry, Pharmacy and Biology). She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies, National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAT) in Mexico City in 1974. She continued with her Post-doctoral training at the National Institute for Dental Research, National Institutes for Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1977 she joined the Laboratory for Developmental Biology at the USC School of Dentistry as a Research Assistant Professor. She is a faculty member in the Graduate Program in Craniofacial Biology, a member of the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology (CCMB), the Advanced Training for Dental Health Care Professionals Program and the Center to Advance Precollege Science Education of USC. She has served as Ad-Hoc reviewer for the Oral Biology and Medicine Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (1987-1990), a member of the National Institute for Dental Research Special Grants Review Committee (1992-1996, 2000- present). Recently she was elected Member-at-Large of the AAAS Section of Dentistry. She has numerous publications, is actively involved in the training of post-graduate, graduate, undergraduate, college and high school students. Her research interests are focused in the cellular, developmental and molecular biology of tooth development; root resorption as consequence of Endodontic or Orthodontic treatment and tissue bioengineering for periodontal repair.