The goal of this competitive renewal application is to provide a variety of complementary training opportunities in dental and craniofacial research at the University of Iowa (UI) and to develop a cohort of basic researchers and dental scholars whose investigative skills will meet the challenges of oral health research for the 21st century.
The aims are to prepare trainees for meaningful careers in oral health research and academics by providing outstanding interdisciplinary didactic training and rigorous research mentoring experiences emphasizing ongoing review and critique. The proposed program continuation, building on 30+ years of research training success, has a focus on dental graduates, but recognizes that basic scientists also play important roles in oral health research;? thus, it will also offer training opportunities for non-dentists. The R90 component reflects the increasingly important role that international dentists have, and will continue to have, in our oral health research programs. The five major research areas in which training is offered, 1) Bioengineering, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells, Biomaterials, and Materials Research 2) Immunology, Inflammation, Microbiology, Caries, and Microbiome Research 3) Craniofacial, Oral Biology, Genetics, and Dental Development Research 4) Public Health, Epidemiology and Behavioral Sciences, and 5) Oral Health Policy Research, reflect the strengths of the College of Dentistry, the health science colleges, UI institutes and centers and range across the full translational spectrum. Specifically, we offer training for dentists and non- dentists to pursue a PhD in Oral Sciences (or in one of the six other PhD programs from which we will recruit, as appropriate), or to pursue post-doctoral training. In addition, there will be an opportunity to obtain a Certificate in Translational and Clinical Investigation under the auspices of the UI Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (our CTSA-funded institute). A group of 28 experienced and talented program faculty from a variety of disciplines is available to mentor trainees. Training will be supervised by an experienced Director and Associate Director, assisted by a Faculty Leadership team. The program will have internal and external advisory committees, a newly-established Grant-writing Committee, a newly-established Faculty Mentoring Program, and a Committee on Recruitment and Diversity. In summary, the program brings together productive, well-funded mentors with pre- and post-doctoral trainees in an environment with a strong institutional commitment to develop outstanding interdisciplinary research training, a strong institutional record of training in relevant disciplines, and excellent educational and research facilities. The outcome will continue to be the development of a cadre of oral health researchers equipped to function at the cutting edge of their disciplines.
The proposed continuation of our training program is designed to provide training opportunities at the PhD and post-doctoral levels for both dentist and non-dentist scientists, including training in translational and clinical research. This program is designed to allow trainees to develop the complex skills necessary to undertake independent and collaborative research, and thus to become dental scholars capable of meeting future opportunities and challenges in dental education and oral health research nationwide.
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