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.

Operative Dentistry held their annual Spring Banquet on Tuesday, May 16 at Blackstone in Iowa City. The department presented awards to a number of students.

The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) awarded Hongli Sun, Kyungsup Shin, and their co-principal investigator a $235K Interdisciplinary Scholars grant for their project investigating a novel approach to to orofacial cleft reconstruction.

Iowa Dentistry and the His Hands Clinic in Cedar Rapids, under dental director Jeff Akey ('87 DDS) began a new partnership this year offering clinical outreach experiences for second-, third-, and fourth-year dental students on select Saturday mornings.

The University of Iowa was one of four research institutions, along with Michigan, Duke, and Indiana, collaborating on a newly-funded National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)/ National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant investigating the causes and implications of adolescent tooth decay, especially among underserved populations.

Iowa has long had an elite reputation as a premier dental education institution among each branch of the U.S. military. Veteran alumni consistently report that when they started their military dental careers, their dental officers expected the very best from them because of their Iowa pedigree. This reputation also means that military dentists often attend Iowa to receive their specialty education.

From our career-retired military dentists who spend the second half of their career teaching at Iowa to our veteran students, from our esteemed alumni who carry on the Iowa legacy throughout their military careers to our veteran patients who wouldn’t have access to dental care without our college, Iowa Dentistry is committed to those who have served in the United States armed forces.

At the spring meeting of Dental Student Research Group, Cyrus Mansouri and Sydney Woods received awards for 2023 Outstanding Dental Researcher. 

Robert Bowers, Sukirth Ganesan, and Aline Petrin were each selected as 2023 Mentors of the Years by the Dental Student Research Group. Follow the link for photos of all three awardees with their students.