Huojun Cao and Eric Van Otterloo are investigating the genetic underpinnings of tooth development. The long-term goal of their work is to better understand tooth development so that new regenerative treatments for teeth can be developed.

Building on the University of Iowa College of Dentistry’s longstanding experience of university-industry collaboration, Fabricio Teixeira, professor and head of the Department of Endodontics, is working with the medical equipment manufacturer SONENDO of California, to evaluate a new piece of specialized equipment that SONENDO has developed called GentleWave.

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.”

The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Huojun Cao, assistant professor in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and the Department of Endodontics, a 2-year grant for his project, “Identification of Master Transcription Factors of Dental Epithelial Stem Cell by Computational Method.”