Spring 2007 - UNC School of Dentistry - The University of North ...

If walls could talk
These do. Biomedical investigation and discovery within the laboratories of the Dental Research
Center find voice in scholarly, peer-reviewed articles and journals, the mainstream media, in professional
conferences and weekend workshops. Funding seeds the process. It built the Center that attracts
the scholars who solicit the grants that advance the research informing the dentists who improve
their practice (somewhat like The House that Jack Built).Thanks to the Dental Research Center and its
groundbreaking scientists, we consistently rank among the top dental schools in the nation for attracting
elite funding from the National Institutes of Health—all benefiting your 8–5 schedule. From water
fluoridation, advances in pain and infection control and improved dental materials to the pathogenesis
of periodontal disease, the viral properties of HIV infection and temporomandibular joint disorders,
Carolina research is as much a part of patient care as your warm smile and gentle touch.
1957
Federal grants support record numbers of
graduate student and post-doc fellowships.
Research funding advances the practice of
bonding ceramics onto chrome. The School
launches a training program in the expanding
field of dental epidemiology.
1963
Dean Brauer appoints
Dr. Bawden assistant
dean and coordinator of
Research.
1967
Success! Funded by the Dental
Foundation, the NIH grant and
University trust funds, the Dental
Research Center building opens,
signaling Carolina’s commitment
to world-class dental research.
1958 1960 1962 1964 1966
1961
Dr. J.W. Bawden receives the
school’s first National Institute
of Dental Research RO-1 grant
to study the placental transfer
of calcium and fluoride. The
National Institutes of Health
(NIH) offers a $492,000 challenge
grant to build the Dental
Research Center building. The
Dental Foundation accepts the
challenge and begins fundraising
to match the grant.
1966
Bawden succeeds Brauer as dean of
the School and Dr. Andrew Dixon
joins the faculty as assistant dean for
Research and director of the Dental
Research Center. Dixon investigates
craniofacial nerve
tissue, sparking
research into neural mechanisms,
mineralization, speech,
immunology, growth, biomaterials
and hemostasis. Projects
encompass cleft palate, pain
control, tooth and bone formation,
wound healing, transplants
and composite restorative materials.
Cutting our teeth
Pediatric dentist and father of five, James Wyatt Bawden, looked into toothless, baby-faced grins and saw
science. Could tooth formation and dental health be influenced prenatally He applied to the National
Institute of Dental Research for a grant investigating the placental transfer of calcium and fluoride and
received it, ushering in the School’s first individual research project grant and heralding a new age of
discovery. Bawden’s grant signaled to other Dental Research Center scientists that our scholars could
compete for the most prestigious national funding and win it. His ensuing investigations established
baseline science that has influenced the practice of dentistry and medicine for decades: nutrient requirements
for preterm infant formulas, implications for maternal alcohol and drug use, preventive dentistry
for Medicaid-eligible children and fluoride sealants, just to name a few.