An accomplished oral surgeon, Kim Swanson (’81 BA, ’86 DDS) is a dedicated alumna who has left a mark in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery and in the dental profession more widely.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Matthew Remy, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, a F31 grant to support his dissertation project, “Bone Regeneration Induced by the Sustained Release of Osteoinductive microRNAs from 3D-printed Constructs.”

As the course director for the fourth-year Dental Emergency Course, Alberto Gasparoni exemplifies the characteristic features embodied in the James H. and Hermine E. McLeran Faculty Award and the namesakes for the award—a passionate commitment to dental education focused on excellence in teaching and patient-centered care.

Michael Kanellis recently published Novocaine, a novel written by his late father, which adapted a story that Michael had developed.

Dr. Lina Moreno DDS PhD, associate professor in the University of Iowa, Department of Orthodontics, was named the Department Executive Officer of her department.

The US Department of Health and Human Services awarded Dr. Julie Reynolds, assistant professor in the Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, almost $100K for her project, "Dental Coverage for Pregnant Women and Parents in Medicaid: Impact on Children's Access to Dental Care." The project investigates how Medicaid coverage for parents, which some states provide and some states do not, affects how much children and parents use dental services. Dr. Pete Damiano and Dr. Jin Xian are co-investigators for the project.

Dental students from Iowa received numerous awards at the 2021 IADR and AADOCR Annual Meeting.

The Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation awarded Dr. Leonardo Marchini a grant to support the final step in the development of a tool to measure the degree of ageism among dental students. The tool will be used to develop and evaluate specific strategies for addressing ageism among dental students with the goal of improving the oral health of older adults.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded 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.

The BigMouth Dental Data Repository is a comprehensive database of electronic health records provided by dental schools in a partially de-identified manner. Eleven major dental schools are currently participating with Iowa joining in 2020. This repository can be used for high-powered research using information collected from each of the participating institutions, and is a promising avenue for big data research.