Dental Academic Research Training Program
The DART (Dental Academic Research Training) Program is a comprehensive research-training program focused on the development of an innovative, integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to produce a cadre of well-trained, skilled, collaborative scientists and clinician scientists that are capable to address critical dental, oral and craniofacial research issues.
This program is a culmination of our successful NIH NIDCR T-32 Research Training programs (T32-DE14300 Post-doctoral training in Oral Health & T32-DE007026 Post-Doctoral Training in Caries Research) and a Short-Term Research Training for Health Professional Students grant (T-35DK07545) all funded for over thirty years. The experience gained through these various training activities has lead to an innovative program designed to enhance the interest of dentists and dental students in basic and clinical research, and introduce students to dental academic careers.
The DART Program will offer four complementary training tracks:
Track I- short-term dental student;
Track II- DMD/Ph.D.;
Track III- predoctoral Ph.D.;
and Track IV- postdoctoral training with two emphasis lines
1) a traditional post-doctoral experience and
2) a Master’s of Science degree in Public Health in Clinical Research program.
Research training will be provided in one of the School of Dentistry’s programmatic research theme foci: biomaterials, microbiology and immunology, and craniofacial developmental biology and genetics, and clinical research.
The primary objective of this new NIDCR National Research Service Award Institutional Research Training Grant application is to provide a broadened interdisciplinary research experience for
22 exceptionally motivated trainees in a research-intensive academic university environment:
8 short-term dental students
3 Dental Scientist Training Program (DSTP) students
2 Predoctoral Ph.D students
and 5 postdoctoral trainees.