The University of Iowa College of Dentistry supports a vibrant research enterprise through both external and internal grant funding. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, external grants came from a wide range of sources, including federal, state, and local agencies, industry partners, and private foundations, and our internal grant funding primarily supported pilot projects designed to attract future external funding.

External Funding

$ 8.9M +

in external grant awards

43

grants awarded

69

grant applications submitted
Bar graph depicting external funding at the COD from FY20-FY25

In FY2025, researchers at the College of Dentistry submitted $20,360,054 in external grant applications.

62% of our grant proposals were funded in 2024-2025, a significant increase over the 45% in 2023-2024.

Various Funding Sources

Our researchers received funding from a variety of sources, including the following:
  • American Association of Orthodontics Research 
  • CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, Inc 
  • Colgate-Palmolive Company 
  • Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation 
  • Geistlich Pharma AG 
  • IDeA National Resource for Quantitative Proteomics 
  • Iowa Department of Health & Human Services 
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Oral Mucosal Immunity Consortium 
  • Sanofi Pasteur, Inc
  • US Department of Health and Human Services 
Chart depicting the funding sources for COD grants in FY25

Internal Grants

$ 192K +

Awarded to faculty through internal grant programs

7

New projects funded

6

different research areas

FY2024 Seed Grant Awardees

Azeez Butali

Azeez Butali

The Gilbert E. Lilly Professor of Diagnostic Sciences

Project Title: "Whole genome Sequencing of Noma Triads from Africa"
Co-Investigator: Erliang Zeng

Shareef Dabdoub

Shareef M. Dabdoub

Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Computational Biology

Project Title: "Illumninating the PFAS: Consequences of Exposure on Oral Health"
Co-investigator: Sukirth Ganesan

Siva Prakasam

Sivaraman Prakasam

Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Periodontics

Project Title: "Role of opsons in shaping plaque microbiome and gingival immunity"
Co-investigators: Sukirth Ganesan and Shareef Dabdoub

Fan Shao

Fan Shao

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Project Title: "The roles of Sox2 in lineage specification of dental epithelial stem cell"
Co-Investigator: Huojun Cao

Cristina Vidal

Cristina Vidal

Assistant Professor of Operative Dentistry

Project Title: "Unraveling how the oral microbiome engages host MMPs in moderate and advanced dental caries"
Co-investigators: Shaoping Zhang and Jeff Banas

FY2024 CRISP Grant Awardees

Abhishek Parolia

Abhishek Parolia

Associate Professor of Endodontics

Project Title: Effect of Dental Practicality Index (DPI) training using web-based application on treatment planning decision making skills

Anelise Viapiana Masiero

Anelise Viapiana Masiero

Associate Professor of Endodontics

Project Title: Influence of different instrumentation and irrigation techniques and the application of heat on the properties of endodontic sealers