(By Dr. Joseph D. Lim and Dr. Kenneth Lester Lim, BS-MMG, DDM, MSc-OI_
SOMETHING very very modern is happening at one of the oldest universities in the United States.
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university founded in 1740 when the British still ruled America, its colony. Penn, as it is now popularly known, is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Last January, the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine opened its Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD), a state-of-the-art facility that’s moving ideas into reality.
“We need to come up with more precise, more effective approaches to target the people who need them the most and make sure they’re accessible and affordable,” says Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, CiPD’s Co-Director and a Professor in Penn’s School of Dental Medicine, pointing out that 3.5 billion people worldwide have oral diseases that are preventable, such as tooth decay and gum disease.
Dr. Koo, a dentist who has training in food engineering, and her Co-Director Dr. Kathleen Stebe, a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, are behind the CiPD.
In effect, they and CiPD fused dentistry and engineering.
“This partnership between Penn Engineering and Penn Dental Medicine will advance new paradigms to attack oral health challenges and train the next generation of researchers steeped in engineering approaches in this space,” says Professor Stebe.
This year, the CiPD were awarded a $2.5 million grant by the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research to train postdoctoral-level fellows over five years.
The postdoc fellows will apply cutting-edge approaches in engineering and computational sciences to study disease mechanisms and develop precise yet low-cost diagnostics, therapies and devices.
The training program, which starts later this year, will focus on the oral microbiome, host immunity and tissue regeneration – from tooth decay and gum disease to the needs of head and neck cancer patients.
As part of the two-year training, each postdoc will receive mentorship from clinicians, basic scientists and engineers. These mentorships will be focused on research outcomes and readying participants to submit grants and compete for positions in academia or industry.
“We’re hoping the grant will promote cross-pollination and create a culture between these two fields to help dentists develop innovative strategies with engineers,” says Dr. Koo.
“Dentists can learn from engineering principles and tools, and engineers can understand more about the needs of the dental and craniofacial fields.”
“This is a career-defining opportunity for outstanding postdoctoral researchers to define new engineering, computational and applied science approaches in the oral health regime,” says Professor Stebe. “We hope highly motivated scholars are attracted by the program’s custom-fit training and support.”
The program will partner with industry, so the postdoctoral trainees can more deeply understand product development and regulatory challenges.
Already, the CiPD is awarding seed funds that address gaps in oral health needs in a cost-effective ways.
In a partnership with Jason Moore of the Perelman School of Medicine’s Institute for Biomedical Informatics, the CiPD is exploring artificial intelligence applications to find new ways to analyze big data and predict diseases, design more effective therapies and assess the effectiveness of existing ones.
A collaborative work between Shuying (Sheri) Yang of Penn Dental Medicine and Michael Mitchell of Penn Engineering, supported by CiPD seed funds, has led to a new U.S. Department of Defense grant.
Their project investigates inflammatory mediators and ionizable lipid nanoparticles to deliver drugs against bone defects, which has implications for people with craniofacial disorders which relate to the bones of the skull and face.
A project led by CiPD core member and Penn Dental Medicine professor Henry Daniell won the Innovation in Dental Medicine and Engineering to Advance Oral Health (IDEA) Prize, an award developed in partnership between CiPD and the Penn Center for Health, Devices, and Technology, or Penn Health Tech.
The recognition will help fund a project in to create a plant-based chewing gum that can degrade dental plaque and perhaps even deliver biopharmaceuticals to reduce infectious particles of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the UE College of Dentistry, former Dean of the College of Dentistry, National University, past president and honorary fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy, and honorary fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists and Honorary Life Member of Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515./PN
