Research Day Welcomes Visiting Students from
Southern Indiana and Neighboring Dental Schools
The IU School of
Dentistry’s 2009 Research Day was marked by a series of “firsts”: The 17th
annual event, held April 24 in conjunction with the Indiana Section of the
American Association for Dental Research, took place for the first time at the
IUPUI Campus Center; the award competitions were opened up for the first time
to students from other schools of dentistry; and a uniquely youthful
interpretation of dental research was offered for the first time by a dozen
eighth graders (below) from Scottsburg Middle School in southern Indiana, near
Louisville, Ky.
During the school year,
the Scottsburg teens divided into teams and worked on five oral health projects
as members of their school’s Pre-Dental Club. Pamela Clark, the IU
School of Dentistry’s assistant director of admissions, has been traveling back
and forth from Scottsburg this year as the group’s research mentor. The
students delved into topics that are highly relevant in today’s school systems,
such as health hazards associated with tobacco use, oral piercings, and
bulimia.
Six dental students from
neighboring dental schools also helped raise this year’s award competitions to
a new level, in what is hoped to be the first of many such interschool Research
Day competitions held at IU in the future. Joining us this year were Ryan
Reese, Dwetta Santos, and Jacob Witer of Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland, Ohio, and Jason Au-Yeung, Edwin Kwon, and Robert
Reti of the University of Detroit Mercy in Michigan.
Led this year by INAADR
President Burak Taskonak, assistant professor of dental biomaterials,
Research Day once again benefited from the corporate sponsorship of the Wm.
Wrigley Jr. Company.
The school welcomed
as keynote speaker Grayson Marshall, DDS, MPH, PhD (left), chair of the
Division of Biomaterials and Bioengineering at the University of California,
San Francisco. Marshall, who was installed as president of the American
Association for Dental Research in Miami earlier this month, delivered an
address titled “Toward Functional Remineralization of Carious Dentin.”
Complementing Marshall’s
talk were 76 presentations, including a special series of projects presented by
seven researchers associated with the school’s Binational/Cross-Cultural Health
Enhancement Center.
All of the abstracts are
available in the online Research Day monograph: http://www.iusd.iupui.edu/?fwlink=rd2009.
We congratulate the
following 22 students, staff, and faculty who were honored for their efforts in
research and teaching:
Staff Category
Sunstar Butler Staff
Award for Research Excellence:
Jennifer Eder
Research Technician,
Preventive and Community Dentistry
Poster #56: Total Fluoride Content and Release of Various Fluoride Varnishes
Faculty Mentor:
Carlos González-Cabezas
Undergraduate Student Category
Procter & Gamble
Award, 1st Place:
Mallory
Wilson
IUPUI student
Poster #66: Effect of Nicotine on the Adherence of Streptococcus mutans
to Salivary-Coated Hydroxyapatite
Faculty Mentor: Richard
Gregory
Procter & Gamble
Award, 2nd Place:
Jordan
Jenkins
IUPUI student:
Poster #38: Alendronate
as a Contributing Factor to Osteonecrosis of the Jaw
Faculty Mentor: L. Jack
Windsor
Dental Student Category
Interschool Traveling Research
Award:
(a competition between students from Case Western Reserve University and
University of Detroit Mercy)Robert
Reti
University of Detroit
Mercy
Poster #45: Tβ4
Adjuvant to Chlorhexidine in an Organotypic Human Tissue Model
Interschool Research
Award
(a competition among
students from the two visiting dental schools and IU):
Ryan
Reese
Case Western Reserve
University
Poster #33: Evaluation
of Nanocomposite Incorporation into a Novel Endodontic Retrofill Material
Cyril S. Carr Research
Scholarship
(for Overall Excellence in Research
at the Predoctoral Level):
Co-recipients:
Rachel
Dunlop and Aaron
Stump
Class of 2010
Rachel Dunlop and Aaron
Stump have been involved in IU School of Dentistry research programs for the
past two academic years. Dunlop has worked with faculty mentor Michael
Kowolik on infection control studies concerning Staphylococcus aureus, a
bacterium that has been found on dental student laptop computers and that is
resistant to the antibiotic methicillin. Stump’s diagnostics studies in
cariology have looked at the influence of magnification use on the visual
assessment of the severity of carious lesions. His faculty mentor is Margherita
Fontana.
Procter & Gamble
Award for Excellence in Preventive Oral Health Care, 1st Place:
Stephen
Powell
Class of 2010
Poster #29: Gel vs.
Liquid Etchant for Conditioning Fissures Before Sealant Placement
Faculty Mentor: Armando
Soto-Rojas
Procter & Gamble
Award for Excellence in Preventive Oral Health Care, 2nd Place:
Erin
Coleman
Class of 2009
Poster #19: The
Antimicrobial Effect of a Copper-Containing Sealant
Faculty Mentor:
Margherita Fontana
Johnson & Johnson
Listerine Student Research Group Award, 1st Place:
Aaron
Stump
Class of 2010
Poster #34: The Effects
of Magnification on Caries Detection
Faculty Mentor: Margherita
Fontana
Johnson & Johnson
Listerine Student Research Group Award, 2nd Place:
Nisha
Mehta
Class of 2010
Poster #28: Detection
of Proximal Lesions: ICDAS II versus Caries Detection Devices
Faculty Mentor:
Andréa Ferreira Zandoná
American Dental
Association/Dentsply International Student Clinician Award, 1st
Place:
Aliaksandr Kurshuk
Class of 2011
Poster #26: Effects of
Sealant Thickness on Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence Measurements
Faculty Mentor: Jeffrey
Platt
American Dental
Association/Dentsply International Student Clinician Award, 2nd
Place:
Heather Hirsch
Class of 2011
Poster #25: In Vitro
Enamel Remineralization Effect of Different Remineralizing Products
Faculty Mentor: Margherita
Fontana
Graduate Student Category
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Student
Award (Master’s level), 1st Place:
Sivaraman
Prakasam
Master’s degree student in
Periodontics
Poster #51: Soluble TLR-2:
Putative Adjunct Marker for Chronic Periodontitis
Faculty Mentor: Mythily
Srinivasan
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Student
Award (Master’s level), 2nd Place:
Swati
Chitre
Master’s degree student in
Operative Dentistry
Poster #55: Evaluation
of Fissure Treatment Before Sealant Placement
Faculty Mentor: Armando
Soto-Rojas
Trident Award for Innovation
in Oral Care Research (PhD level), 1st Place
(Cadbury Schweppes Americas
Confectionary, sponsor):
Michele
Diniz
PhD degree student at the
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who through a collaborative venture with IU is
completing the dissertation portion of her degree requirements at the Oral
Health Research Institute
Poster #20: The
Influence of ICDAS-II E-Learning Programme for Occlusal Caries Detection
Faculty Mentor: Andréa
Ferreira Zandoná
Trident Award for
Innovation in Oral Care Research (PhD level), 2nd Place:
Weiping Zhang
PhD degree student in
Dental Science
Poster #70: Combined
Effects of Tobacco and Porphyromonas gingivalis on Gingival Fibroblasts
Faculty Mentor: L. Jack Windsor
Maynard K. Hine Award
for Excellence in Dental Research
(for Best Research Manuscript):
Vivian Wahaidi
PhD degree student in
Dental Science
Manuscript: Bacteremia and the Systemic
Inflammatory Response Following Toothbrushing
Co-authors: Sherie
Dowsett, George Eckert, Stephen Allen, Michael Kowolik
Indiana Dental
Association Best Clinical Case Report Award (Master’s level), 1st
Place:
Enrique
Cruz
Master’s degree student in
Periodontics
Clinical Case #2: Periodontally
Accelerated Osteogenic Orthodontics
Faculty Mentor: Vanchit
John
Indiana Dental
Association Best Clinical Case Report Award (Master’s level), 2nd
Place:
Nawaf
Labban
PhD student in Dental
Science (award was bestowed for research originating in Dr. Labban’s previous
master’s degree program in Prosthodontics)
Clinical Case #3: Rehabilitation
of a Fully Edentulous Patient Using Implants and CAD/CAM Technology
Faculty Mentor: Carl Andres
Postdoctoral Fellow Category
Indiana Section of the American
Association for Dental Research Award:
Neetha
Santosh
Postdoctoral fellow,
Department of Oral Biology
Poster #58: Expression
of Matrix Metalloproteinases During Limb Regeneration in Xenopus laevis
Faculty Mentor: Fengyu
Song
Faculty Category
Jeffrey Platt
IUSD Alumni Association
Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching: Jeffrey Platt
Indiana University dental graduate Dr.
Jeffrey Platt joined IUSD as a part-time faculty member in Restorative
Dentistry in 1996, after earning an IU master’s degree in dental materials. He
moved into a full-time appointment in 2000. Over the past decade Platt has
carried a heavy teaching load, contributing to many courses and directing
several courses/modules. He earns consistently solid student evaluations and
has built an impressive record as an effective educator. Three students whom
Platt has worked with on research studies have received awards for their efforts,
and he himself is the recipient of two IU Trustees Teaching Awards. He has
participated in a wide array of research investigations, and is currently a co-investigator
on a project funded by the National Institutes of Health that is looking at the
effectiveness of sealing caries. Platt has served in many capacities over the
course of his career, not the least of which are his years of service as a
dental officer in the U.S. Navy, a term as president of the Indianapolis
District Dental Society, and 11 years of dedicated service on the Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne campus as an associate faculty member
in the Department of Dental Education. He currently directs IUSD’s Division of
Dental Materials and holds the honorary title of Ralph W. Phillips Scholar in
Dental Materials. Director of the curriculum since 2008, Platt has long demonstrated
an extraordinary commitment to IUSD’s educational program, and he has emerged
as a strong leader in both academic and organized dentistry.
Andréa Zandoná
IUSD Alumni Association
Distinguished Faculty Award for Research: Andréa Ferreira Zandoná
Dr. Andréa Ferreira Zandoná first
came to IU in 1991 to work on a master’s degree in operative dentistry. She
went on to receive a PhD in Dental Science in 1997, at which time she joined
IU’s full-time faculty in Preventive and Community Dentistry. Zandoná has
received many honors and awards, not the least of which are the Basil Bibby
Award for Excellence in Cariology Research from the International Association
for Dental Research and the IUPUI Boyer Scholar Award for faculty development. She
is heavily involved in teaching, but the primary focus of her activities is in research
as director of the IUSD Early Caries Detection Program. While Zandoná has
served as a co-investigator or principal investigator on multiple research
grants, perhaps her most significant achievement is her current National
Institutes of Health RO1 award as a principal investigator looking at clinical
validation for early caries detection. She is the author or co-author of dozens
of research article and abstract publications, and she closely mentors many students
on research activities. Zandoná is a dental graduate of the Pontifícia
Universidade Católica do Paraná, in Brazil. She has been a visiting scholar at
the University of Illinois at Chicago and a teacher and administrator at
Brazilian dental schools in Paraná and São Paulo, including service as
associate dean for dental research at Tuiuti University. She is a highly active
and productive faculty member who is continuing to strengthen her leadership
role within the IU School of Dentistry, as well as nationally and internationally.
April 28, 2009