Page 32 - Dentistry Magazine 2021

RESEARCH
An important aspect of our mission is the commitment to lifelong discovery through research. This year, our researchers advanced the study of oral health care in ways that changed the scope of care, opened new pathways to treatment and questioned assumptions about pain and disease.
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DENTISTRY 2021
Our researchers have 27 active National Institute of Health awards, including awards from the National Institute for craniofacial Research, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Drug Abuse, among others. Researchers produced 116 publications in Fiscal Year 2021, with 20 current patent applications. A full list of our researchers’ publications over the past two years is available on our website.
Periodontology lab awarded $848,000 to investigate oral disease prevention
Two grants to the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry from the National
Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health are supporting research to identify new approaches to preventing thrush and periodontitis.
Diseases of the mouth are costly and can lead to loss of teeth, a diminished quality of life and life-threatening systemic infections.
In July 2020, Massimo Costalonga, PhD, DMD, professor of developmental and surgical sciences, was awarded
a research grant of $424,000 to investigate the cellular biological causes and potential prevention of oral thrush. Research specialist Peter Bittner-Eddy, PhD, received $424,000 to support work to investigate periodontitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the gums.
Costalonga and his team are exploring how immune cells located within the epithelium of the oral mucosa regulate protection against Candida albicans, the fungus whose over-accumulation on the lining of the mouth and tongue leads to thrush, a painful infection that can spread to other parts of the body. Prior research indicates Intraepithelial Langerhans cells, a specialized phagocytic cell population, seems to regulate the numbers of anti-yeast T cells.
Research