Public Health Issue - Harvard School of Dental Medicine

public health focusMiddle-School StudentsVisit HSDMEvery year, HSDM hosts local middle-school studentsthrough Explorations, a one-day program forselected Boston and Cambridge public middleschools. Some 250 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-gradestudents are hosted by Harvard faculty and research associates,including at HSDM and Harvard Medical School, for a dayof presentations, panel discussions about educational paths,and the pairing of individual students with researchers forlaboratory activities. The primary objective of the programis to provide students with additional experience outside theclassroom to enhance their science and mathematics curricula.HSDM prosthodontics resident Edward K. Brown Jr.(DMSc 2013) was the moderator at the panel discussion,and Jason Outlaw (DMD/PhD 2016) was a guest panelist.Students visited HSDM laboratories for presentations by YefuLi, an assistant professor of developmental biology; MalcolmWhitman, a professor of developmental biology; and Xiu-PingWang, an assistant professor of developmental biology. •Malcolm Whitman,an HSDM professorof developmentalbiology, helped astudent look througha microscope.Jan Reiss Jan ReissBoston middle-school students visited HSDM as part of their day in the Explorations program. This group of students listened as MalcolmWhitman discussed aspects of arthritis with the aid of a wooden skeleton. Yefu Li, an assistant professor of developmental biology (notpictured), also participated in the presentation. Li’s research focuses on osteoarthritis, while Whitman works toward developing newtherapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammatory conditions, including arthritis.harvard dental bulletin • winter 2012–139