T32 Training Grant Awarded to The Ohio State University College of Dentistry

The Ohio State University College of Dentistry faculty John Sheridan, PhD, professor and training grant director in the Division of Biosciences and Susan R. Mallery, DDS, PhD, chair of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, have been awarded a five-year, $2.6M T32 training grant from the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the National Institutes of Health. Other College of Dentistry faculty who were integral for the success of the application included John Bartlett, MS, PhD, associate dean for Research and professor in the Division of Biosciences; Brian Foster, MS, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Biosciences; and Scott Schricker, PhD, director of Student Research and associate professor in the Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry.

The T32 training grant, titled “Multidisciplinary Research Training in Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Sciences,” supports the college's program that provides exceptional training and financial support at a variety of career levels for students/trainees who are dedicated to becoming the next generation of academicians and clinician scientists. Trainees have the opportunity to participate in research in such areas as inflammation and immunity; cancer chemoprevention and biology; psychoneuroimmunology; microbial pathogenesis; dental materials and biomedical engineering; hard tissue biology; and molecular genetics.  By virtue of its robust professional-graduate student support, this T32 also directly benefits the college’s graduate and clinician-scientist faculty and expands mentoring and training opportunities.  

"This grant will allow the college to continue its dominance in preparing doctoral and postdoctoral students for careers that have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the nation," said Dr. Carroll Ann Trotman, dean of the College of Dentistry.

Dr. Sheridan commented, “This grant supports graduate students, post-doctoral students and dual degree (DDS/PhD) training.”  He secured the college’s first T32 training grant from the NIDCR in in 2001. “The training program has graduated 17 dual degree students, and it is our intention to sustain this momentum,” he said.

Mindful that dentistry was the first health profession to pursue preventative healthcare by advocating for water fluoridation in the 1940s, Dr. Mallery is particularly proud that more students will be trained to conduct research related to preventive dental healthcare. “With this grant, Ohio State-trained researchers can potentially find solutions to the continued disparities in oral health care in underserved communities,” she said. “Nothing is comparable to being given the privilege to provide the foundational translational and clinical research training for the next generation of dental scientists.”