The Delta Dental Institute awarded Leonardo Marchini, associate professor in the Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, almost $100K to evaluate the effect that the mobile application, GeriaDental, has on oral health outcomes for older adults who receive most dental care from a caregiver.

Older adults, especially those in nursing homes, often lack access to high-quality dental care and rely on nurses and other caregivers to brush and care for their teeth. Many of these caregivers feel unequipped to help older adults care for their oral health. 

Several years ago, Marchini, along with a team of specialists in geriatrics, geriatric oral health, and information technology, began developing an app, GeriaDental, that could help caregivers provide good oral hygiene to older adults. This app provides caregivers with access the vast resources available on an as-needed basis regarding dental care.

This grant from the Delta Dental Institute will allow Marchini and his team to evaluate whether the use of GeriaDental improves oral health outcomes for older adults who receive their daily dental care from a caregiver.  

Sato Ashida, associate professor in the Department of Community and Behavior Health in the College of Public Health, is working with Marchini on the project.

The Annual Meeting for the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) was held virtually this past week, July 21-24. Iowa had 42 presentations from faculty and students, and since each presentation was conducted virtually, the presentations can be still viewed if you registered for the conference.

• The opening ceremony for the meeting was kicked off by IADR president, Pamela Den Besten ('80 DDS).
• David Drake, professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, became the treasurer for the IADR.
• Two Iowa researchers, Susana Calderon and Cristina Vidal, participated in the inaugural class (2020-2021) of the AADOCR MIND the Future program. An overview of the program with special attention to David Drake's role in the program is highlighted on the College of Dentistry website.
• Aline Petrin, assistant professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, was announced a member of the 2021-2022 class of the AADOCR MIND the Future program.
• 15 dental students earned AADR Bloc Travel grants. The recipients were Chinyere Adeleka, Jonathan Brennan, Teagan Byrnes, Bethany Doolittle, Jennifer Greif, Sang Han, Madison Kasparek, Mary Li, Jamie Liu, Sheng Hao Lu, Cyrus Mansouri, Katherine Moore, Shannon Osland, Benjamin Phan, and Sydney Woods.
• Dental Student Megha Puranam received a Student Research Day Award based on her work at the Iowa Section of the AADR Annual Meeting.
• Waheed Awotoye, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, won second prize in the 2021 IADR Hatton Award in the senior category for his research presentation. 
• Dental student Mary Li won a Student Research Fellowship in support of her project. Azeez Butali, associate professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research is Li's mentor.

 Associate Dean for Research Jin Xian said that it was a "very impressive Iowa IADR representation" as he expressed congratulations to the students and mentors for the award winners.

The medical equipment manufacturer SONENDO of California awarded Dr. Fabricio Teixeira, professor and head of the Department of Endodontics, and his team a $189K grant and specialized equipment and training worth almost $350K, bringing the total value of the award to $539K for their 1-year clinical project, “Effectiveness of GentleWave on the Healing of Apical Periodontitis: a prospective cohort study.”

Apical periodontitis is caused by a polymicrobial infection of the root canal system. Microorganisms present in the necrotic pulp can lead to periradicular diseases (periapical lesion). In endodontic treatment of these circumstances, the primary purpose is to reduce the number of microbial cells, tissue, biofilms, and infected dentine. In the majority of cases, apical periodontitis will heal if the root canal system is adequately disinfected.

Currently, various irrigation and mechanical instrumentation techniques have been used. A combination of several procedures can predictably eliminate these microorganisms. Sonendo has developed an alternative treatment using sound waves and advanced fluid dynamics, called the Gentlewave System. The concept is based on minimally invasive endodontics; it was designed to reduce patient inconvenience, operatory turnover, and risk of viral exposure. It has the potential to eliminate these microorganisms and etiological factors, preserving the tooth structure. Dr. Teixeira and his team will evaluate whether this new invention can clinically reduce operating time, document the incidence of post-operatory pain, and, more importantly, confirm if it enhances root canal disinfection, thereby increasing the healing rate for apical periodontitis. 

Dr. Teixeira’s team includes statisticians Dr. Xian Jin Xie and Carissa Comnick, Sara Miller as clinic coordinator, and endodontics residents and faculty who will use the new technology.

Dr. Teixeira said, “I am fortunate to have worked with such wonderful people on this project, notably Sara Miller, Ann Lawler, Sharon Seydel and Carissa Comnick. We are very enthusiastic about this translational research opportunity.”

The results will be evaluated by board-certified endodontic faculty using limited Cone Beam Computed Tomography examinations (CBCT). 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded Dr. Cristina Vidal, assistant professor in the Department of Operative Dentistry, a 5-year grant totaling over $700K for her research project studying the relationship between caries and the oral microbiome.

Caries is the most common chronic disease for children and adolescents and is also common among adults. This disease is caused by numerous factors, commonly attributed to diet and acid content in the mouth and their effects on the oral microbiome. These imbalances demineralize dental hard tissues, which allows for a carious lesion in the enamel of a tooth. With further demineralization, a cavity will develop.

Dr. Vidal’s research group has shown that the common narrative about how diet and acid content cause caries is more complex than originally thought. In particular, the team has highlighted how certain enzymes, namely matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), can cause greater dental decay, while other MMPs can help repair dentin tissues.

Dr. Vidal and her research group are exploring effective ways to stimulate and regenerate dental tissues using insights regarding how to activate and promote helpful MMPs and reduce the presence and activity of harmful MMPs.

Dr. Vidal’s hypothesis is that the changes in the oral microbiome that accompany caries progression affect gene- and protein-expression of specific MMPs, which may be related to changes in odontoblasts. To test this hypothesis, Dr. Vidal will study changes in odontoblasts and dentin organic matrix as caries progresses.

Dr. Jeff Banas, Dr. Vidal’s mentor for the project, said, “Dr. Vidal’s research may reveal novel mechanisms involved in caries progression to an advanced state, as well as offer insight into means for using the forthcoming mechanistic understanding to consider regeneration potential and new ideas for treatment approaches.”

This research could ultimately result in inventions that prevent caries progression and repair tissues damaged by caries, thus, reducing the need for extractions, tissue removal, and restorations.

The research project is supported by a K08 award from the NIH and the NIDCR. The K08 award is a career-development award for clinical investigators that allows them to conduct focused research with a designated mentor. Dr. Jeff Banas, Dr. David Drake, and Dr. Xian Jin Xie.

In 2018, the University of Iowa was ranked 30th in the country for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) funding with just under $3.2M in funds granted. In 2020, this ranking increased to 10th in the country, and 2nd in the Big 10, and to over $6.4M, an increase of over 100% in two years.

“This remarkable achievement is a testament to the excellent faculty and staff at the college, and to Dean Xie’s leadership, and highlights our role as a global leader in oral and craniofacial research” Dean David Johnsen said.

These successes were made possible by recruiting and retaining excellent research faculty; developing support infrastructure for basic science, translational, and clinical research—including the Division of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, staff support, and establishing excellent facilities, labs, and technology; and making space for innovative clinical research. These developments have resulted in a record amount of external grants funds, and a record number of grant applications from the college.

“I want to thank our excellent team that made this success possible. We could not have done it without the great work that our faculty and research support staff have been doing, the support from Dean Johnsen and Dean Schneider, and the university administrative support. This is your success!” Associate Dean for Research Dean Xian Jin Xie said

Although these initiatives are beginning to bear fruit, the future is even brighter.

“As a college, we look forward to seeing these successes amplified with the P3-to-P50 grant and the college’s seed grant program,” Interim Dean Galen Schneider said.

The P3-to-P50 grant is a Public-Private Partnership (P3) grant to develop the infrastructure needed for a P50 oral cancer research-center grant application with National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The collegiate Seed Grant program , which began in 2020, is designed to support innovative projects from early career investigators so that they can be competitive for peer-reviewed grants from national funding agencies. Both of these initiatives point to greater research success on the horizon.

The American Association of Orthodontists Foundation awarded Dr. Kyungsup Shin, assistant professor in Orthodontics, and Dr. Aaron Figueroa, assistant professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, a $30K grant for their project, "Anti-fibrotic Effect of Exosomes on Human Temporomandibular Joint Tissues: A Pilot Study." The project is aimed at understanding the anti-fibrosis therapeutic effect of exosomes on fibrous tissues retrieved from human patients' temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

TMJ's pathological fibrous tissue can lead to seriously disabling diseases such as fibrous TMJ ankylosis. TMJ fibrous ankylosis can progress into bony ankylosis requiring surgical intervention if not appropriately treated. Despite the clear and immediate need for treatment, there are no existing non-surgical therapies to prevent or treat fibrous ankylosis in TMJ.

Recently, exosomes have attracted attention due to their great potential to promote intercellular communication leading to enhanced cell recruitment, differentiation to specific cell lineage, and tissue repair. Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are promising sources of exosomes, and exosomes derived from bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC-Exos) showed an evident reduction of fibrosis in the liver and lung.

Dr. Shin, Dr. Figueroa, and their team hypothesize that myofibroblasts activate human fibrous ankylosis, and MSC-derived exosomes have the potential to alleviate myofibroblast activities. Dr. Shin will isolate and characterize BMSC-Exos from human BMSCs. Dr. Figueroa will screen the patients, conduct TMJ surgery such as total joint replacement, and retrieve pathologic TMJ tissue samples. Anti-fibrotic effects of human BMSC-Exos on human fibrotic TMJ tissues will be evaluated using myofibroblast expression (alpha-SMA, type I collagen) and activity (collagen gel compaction). 

Dr. Shin’s team includes co-investigators Dr. Aaron Figueroa, Dr. Dong Rim Seol (Carver College of Medicine), Dr. Xian Jin Xie, and Dr. James A Martin (Carver College of Medicine) is a consultant.

The American Association of Orthodontists Foundation awarded Dr. Shankar Rengasamy Venugopalan, associate professor in orthodontics, and Dr. Huojun Cao, assistant professor in Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research, a $30K grant for their project, “The Analyses and Validation of Super-enhancers in Craniofacial Microsomia Associated Genomic Region.” The project is aimed at understanding the genetic causes of craniofacial microsomia.

Craniofacial microsomia is a structural birth defect were parts of the face, including ears, jaws, muscles, etc., are smaller than they would ordinarily be. These defects result in an asymmetrical face, and they affect how a person hears, eats, breathes, and speaks. To correct for these defects, multiple surgeries from birth until adolescence are needed. These surgeries are a significant burden on the patient, family, and medical system. Identifying the genetic cause of these defects could allow researchers to develop interventions to prevent these structural birth defects.

To date, the only large-scale genome-wide-association study for these defects identified several statistically significant genes, but these genes explained only about 9% of the genetic variance in the study population. This observation suggests that many genomic regions associated with craniofacial microsomia are yet to be discovered.This project aims to identify other important genetic factors that will further explain this variance.

Most of this research, thus far, has focused on the coding regions of the genome, with little attention on non-coding regions. But non-coding parts of the genome, particularly super enhancers—a cluster of enhancers that play a critical role in determining how a cell develops and grows—can control and affect gene regulatory networks. Dr. Rengasamy Venugopalan and Dr. Cao will use sophisticated computational tools to determine which genes are regulated by the super enhancers and will test them in an in vitro model system to validate their findings.

The present and future direction of health care is all about delivering unique and personalized health care. Being able to meet the exact needs of a patient, while considering their distinct attributes with a precise and measured treatment is revolutionizing the health care industry. Dentistry is no exception, and Dr. Christopher Barwacz’s research is focused on improving treatment outcomes for patients receiving oral implants so that a given dental implant and its prosthetic components are customized for a given patient, rather than trying to fit the patient to a formulaic therapeutic regimen.

Although the field of oral implantology started to take off in the mid-1980s, it wasn’t until this century that the field matured—as it moved beyond a focus of obtaining predictable and successful results pertaining to the bone growing around and supporting an implant to a focus on personalizing and optimizing implant therapy with the goal of expanding the pool of patients who could receive implant replacement therapy without affecting treatment outcomes. To achieve such ends, a focus of research efforts was needed to investigate factors in the transition zone between an implant body and its prosthetic crown that helped contribute to success.

Dr. Barwacz, associate professor in the Department of Family Dentistry, is a leader in personalizing and optimizing implantology, and his research has moved along three main directions to support these goals.

The first direction explores the outcomes of shorter implants (6 mm) versus a traditional implant (≥11 mm).

“Historically, some patients weren’t good candidates for implants without undergoing significant augmentation procedures because their anatomy made it difficult to place a traditional-length implant,” Barwacz explained. “But we found that shorter implants, when planned and restored properly, had a similar long-term success rate to traditional implants, which allows us to optimize the implant length to the anatomical needs of the patient, and treat them in a more minimally-invasive fashion, thereby allowing more patients to potentially receive care.”

In the second, Barwacz and his team investigated the biocompatibility and longer-term prosthetic outcomes of biomaterials used in the fabrication of patient-specific, digitally-designed and manufactured custom abutments, which anchor the prosthetic tooth of the implant to the underlying implant body. “Just because a prosthetic component is still ‘in function’ does not necessarily mean it is ‘successful’, when taking into account factors such as inflammation, discoloration, tissue support, and patient-reported outcomes,” Barwacz said. “The nature of how the prosthetic connection between an implant and its corresponding abutment is designed, as well as the morphology of the abutment as it emerges through the mucosa can potentially have a significant influence on biological stability of the peri-implant tissues, making this an exciting area of research.”

The third direction harnesses the power of digital dentistry to optimize implant therapy. With a digital rendering of the patient’s teeth, mucosa, and supporting bone, the clinician can not only plan the surgery virtually, but can also design and manufacture the custom patient-specific prosthetic components a priori before the actual surgery, resulting in the capability to either immediately restore the missing tooth, or to guide healing post-surgery in a customized fashion. This leads to less morbidity, a more predictable surgery, and the potential to expedite treatment that is patient-centered with a unique treatment solution.

In each of these projects, Barwacz’s approach is multidisciplinary and involves close collaboration with colleagues as well as industry partners.

“Oral implantology is deeply multidisciplinary—to optimize outcomes, you need to collaborate closely with quality-oriented specialists in many different areas to ensure that the final restorative outcome meets the needs of the patient optimally,” Barwacz said.

Through it all, Barwacz’s approach is to start with the end goal in mind and work backwards starting with the patient’s desired endpoint and the specifics of the implant site’s biology to customize care. Incorporating multicenter and multidisciplinary clinical research collaborations to help establish evidence-based protocols that expand and improve outcomes for patients in the future brings Dr. Barwacz the most professional satisfaction.

Dr. Erica Teixeira, associate professor and chair of the Department of Operative Dentistry, was awarded a $35K  subcontract from the National Institutes of Health via the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to develop a boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS)-based filler system to enhance dental composite performance in tooth restorations.

Some studies estimate that dental composites tend to last for less than 8 years due to failures usually related to polymerization shrinkage and shrinkage stress, resin degradation, secondary caries and restoration fracture. These failed restorations must be repaired or replaced. Thus, a restorative system that lasts longer would address a substantial and urgent need in dental and oral health care.

To meet this need while working toward a long-term goal of bringing graphene technology to the dental materials toolbox, Dr. Teixeira was awarded a sub-contract as part of an R56 (PI: Whang-UTHSCSA) entitled, “Boron Nitride Nanosheets (BNNSs) to Enhance Dental Composite Performance.” The overall goal of this project is to develop a boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS)-based filler system to enhance dental composite performance, by determining the effects of BNNS loading on composite total filler loading, curing, physical and optical properties and the in vitro cytotoxicity of BNNS-loaded composites.

Millions of people receive palliative care each year in the United States. Many of these individuals can live several years while receiving palliative care.  Although oral health conditions, including dry mouth, infections, and oral pain among others, are extremely prevalent and can significantly affect their quality of life, the great majority of these individuals receive no oral health care prior to death.

Addressing these oral diseases can help maintain dignity and improve quality of life for older adults receiving palliative care. It can also reduce aspiration pneumonia, life-threatening septicemia and other systemic complications. Additionally, preventive care and early treatment are much more cost-effective than reacting to complications resulting from these oral health conditions.

Thus, Dr. Xi Chen and his team of researchers are working to change the paradigm of oral health care for these older adults. Oral health care has not, thus far, been integrated into daily palliative care practices, and physicians often treat oral health as a less important issue for this population, which in turn results in patients and their caregivers not appropriately valuing oral health care.

To begin changing the way that dentists and physicians think about oral health care for this population, the National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Xi Chen and his research team a $425,000 R21 award.

As a part of the ongoing effort to advance palliative dental education and patient care at University of Iowa, this research builds on Dr. Chen’s early study with palliative care patients and their caregivers to identify barriers and solutions to both personal and professional high-quality oral-health care.

This particular research project will identify patients at the University of Iowa Palliative Care clinic, and conduct oral examinations and perform qualitative interviews with the patients and their caregivers to determine the patient’s oral health care needs, treatment goals, and care preferences. This information will be helpful for developing an intervention designed to increase oral health awareness among palliative care team and increase dental referrals for their patients. The research team will also evaluate the feasibility of integrating a proposed intervention into daily personal palliative care practices over a six-month period.

In addition to this intervention, a palliative dental practice building in the University of Iowa Palliative Care clinic will also be developed to provide on-site assessment and consults for palliative care patients requiring dental referrals.

Dr. Chen’s team including co-investigators Dr. Steven Levy, Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Dr. Timothy Thomsen, Department of Internal, Stephanie Gilbertson-White, PhD, APRN-BC and associate professor in the Department of Nursing, and Mary Ellen Macdonald, PhD, at the McGill University Faculty of Dentistry. 

As an expert in the genetics of embryonic development, Dr. Eric Van Otterloo has opened a new dimension for understanding craniofacial development, genetics, and bone formation.

Van Otterloo’s most recent line of research began when he identified, in the mouse genome, a mutation in the gene Memo1. The mutation, which removed the Memo1 gene, affected craniofacial bone development. Up until that point, Memo1 was primarily associated with breast cancer. In this context, Memo1 was responsible for cell migration, and thus breast cancer metastasis, but Van Otterloo’s discovery opened a new area of inquiry for this gene.

During embryonic development, the cartilage and bone in the head and the face develops out of a particular kind of cells called the neural crest. Along with the cranial bones and cartilage, neural crest cells contribute to several tissues important for life. Van Otterloo’s discovery, using mice with mutations to the gene Memo1, revealed the MEMO1 protein has a unique role in regulating neural crest derived craniofacial bone.

He and his team began investigating the precise mechanism behind this developmental process. First, they found that deleting Memo1 from the neural crest cells alone resulted in some of the same defects they had observed when Memo1 was removed from the entire mouse embryo. This finding suggested that Memo1 played a role directly within the neural crest cells to regulate craniofacial bone mineralization, rather than having an indirect impact on these cells.

Like the neural crest, the ectoderm also contributes to ameloblasts, the cells that deposit enamel on the outer surface of the teeth. Would MEMO1 also play a role in the mineralization process of these cells? To address this question, the Van Otterloo lab deleted Memo1 specifically from the ameloblasts. They found that deleting Memo1 from these cells resulted in severely compromised tooth enamel, again, suggesting Memo1 was somehow involved in mineralization of another tissue.

These experimental processes have helped Van Otterloo and his team investigate the precise mechanism by which Memo1 is regulating mineralization of distinct tissue types during craniofacial development. Current work in the Van Otterloo lab includes trying to determine exactly how Memo1 is controlling both of these mineralization events, and whether there are any shared feature in these mechanisms.

“Memo1 is still a little bit elusive. In breast cancer, it signals and governs cell migration, and for bone development, it regulates bone mineralization,” Van Otterloo said.

“Being able to understand the mechanism by which Memo1 operates could allow us to enhance bone formation or block bone formation to address developmental defects,” he added.

Van Otterloo is continuing this work with a recent, and he was recently awarded a three-year $700K grant for a project investigation the interactions between Memo1 and Runx2.

Runx2 is a transcription factor for activating genes and a master regulator for bone development. In this research project, Van Otterloo is exploring the precise relationship between Memo1 and Runx2.

“We know that Runx2 is crucial for bone development, but we don’t know whether or how it is related to Memo1,” Van Otterloo explained. “We will determine how central Runx2 is to the expression of Memo1 in gene regulatory networks in bone and enamel development,” Van Otterloo added.

Building on Memo1’s role in communicating and directing other cells, it may be the case that Memo1 plays a coordinating role setting up the cytoskeletal system, which plays an important role in the formation of bone and teeth.

This original research fits well at Iowa.

“Iowa has extensive research on cranial facial anomalies and bone regeneration harnessing genetic research,” Van Otterloo said.

In particular, Van Otterloo said that Memo1 could be a good candidate for the team of researchers at Iowa looking into specific therapeutics regarding bone regeneration, and Memo1 could be used to improve specific bone regeneration strategies. Likewise, researchers at Iowa who specialize in orofacial clefting and human genetics could explore the role of Memo1 in various patient cohorts with orofacial clefting.

These studies into the genetics of embryonic bone formation are not only expanding scientific knowledge in the area, but they are also laying the basic science groundwork necessary to move from the bench to the dental chair.

On Thursday, the University of Iowa announced that the first $7.5 million of the investment revenue generated from the public-private partnership (P3) for its utility system would include a $600K+ award for the College of Dentistry. With this support, an interdisciplinary team with over 40-people, including Iowa faculty from the Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Engineering, will develop the preliminary data and program structure to apply and be competitive for an $11 million grant from the NCI/NIDCR to establish a P50 Specialized Program of Research Excellence in oral cancer. This specialized research program in oral cancer will be the first of its kind in the nation.

Each year, approximately 53,000 people are diagnosed with some form of oral cancer and almost 10,000 die. Early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of oral cancer significantly enhance survival rates and reduce morbidity.

These P3 funds will significantly improve the chances that this interdisciplinary team will be able to secure P50 funds for each of the proposed research projects, and these projects would in turn help fill gaps in knowledge and in clinical translation necessary to substantially improve early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of oral cancer.

More specifically, the P3 funds will enable the team to develop the infrastructure and administrative units for supporting each of the research projects, and it will allow the project teams to generate preliminary data.  

In their award letter, Provost Kevin Kregel and Vice President of Research Martin Scholtz said of the project, "Establishing the nation’s first NCI/NIDCR P50 in Oral Cancer will bring national and international distinction to the University of Iowa. We look forward to seeing the progress towards establishing the support activities necessary to be competitive in the P50 grant submission."

The six projects are as follows:

Project 1: The Oral Microbiome in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC)

Co-PIs: Jeffrey Banas, PhD; David Drake, PhD; Sukirth Ganesan, BDS, PhD; Co-Is: Emily Lanzel, DDS; John Hellstein, DDS; Xian Jin Xie, PhD; Eric Taylor, PhD; Liu Hong, MD, PhD; Consultant: Kim Brogden, PhD

Project 2: Dissecting the PRMT5 regulatory pathway in oral epithelium differentiation

Co-PIs: Robert Cornell, PhD; Eric Van Otterloo, PhD; Ronald Weigel, MD, PhD; Co-Is: John Hellstein, DDS; Xian Jin Xie, PhD

Project 3: Tissue-Engineered Approaches for Oral Cancer Reconstructive Surgery

Co-PIs: Liu Hong, MD, PhD; Hongli Sun, PhD; Co-Is: Nitin Pagedar, MD; Brad Amendt, PhD; Marisa Buchakjian, MD, PhD; Xuan Song, PhD

Project 4: In situ Immunization with nanoparticles for treating oral squamous cell carcinoma

Co-PIs: Ali Salem, PhD; George Weiner, MD; Co-Is: Douglas Laux, MD; Andrean Simons-Burnett, PhD; Kyungsup Shin, DMD, PhD; Kim Brogden, PhD; Xian Jin Xie, PhD

Project 5: Discovering Genetic Susceptibility to Oral Cancer

Co-PIs: Xian Jin Xie, PhD; Erliang Zeng, PhD; Co-Is: Robert Cornell, PhD; Azeez Butali, DDS, PhD; Ronald Weigel, MD, PhD; Benjamin Darbro, MD, PhD

Project 6: NEK2 in Oral Cancer Biology and Therapy

Co-PIs: Frank Zhan, MD, DDS, PhD; Marisa Buchakjian, MD, PhD; Emily Lanzel, DDS; Co-Is: Carryn Anderson, MD; Veeratrishul Allareddy, BDS