Dean's Office and IIMS award seed funding to 4 projects

Four research groups received a notice of award from The School of Dentistry regarding their successful application submissions for seed funding. Over the next year, the researchers will use the funding to jumpstart projects that will generate pilot data for preparation of larger grant submissions, such as R01s and Department of Defense funding. The seed funding comes from the Office of the Dental Dean and the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science’s Clinical and Translational Science Award. The submission review board consisted of dental faculty and researchers who reviewed projects based on their similar expertise and research background. Congratulations to: • Shivani Ruparel, PhD, associate professor in the department of endodontics, for the successful application for her project entitled, “Role of Peripheral Sensory Neurons in Controlling Oral Tumorigenesis”. • Nathan Jeske, PhD, and Daniel Perez, DDS, MS, both associate professors in the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery, for the successful application for their project entitled, “Cell Free DNA as a Pain Biomarker”. • Peter Gakunga, BDS, MS, PhD, an associate professor in the department of developmental dentistry, and Kate Spradley, PhD, a professor at Texas State University’s department of anthropology, for the successful application for their project entitled, “Geometric morphometric analysis of tooth morphology among different malocclusion groups in the Hispanic population”. • Asma Khan, BDS, PhD, associate professor in the department of endodontics, and Ken Hargreaves, DDS, PhD, professor and chair of the department of endodontics, for the successful application for their project entitled, “Extracellular vesicles regulate nociception”.