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The College of Dentistry
nurtures the largest dental student research program in the nation. |
The College of Dentistry has a long-standing commitment to teaching,
research, and patient service.
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Forty (40) years ago, the National
Institutes of Dental Research (NIDR) funded the Iowa Cleft Palate Program Project,
aimed at improving the treatment and prognosis of individuals with cleft
palate; nine years ago this evolved into a NIDR Center for Craniofacial
Genetics. This has been the basis for the new National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) P-60 Center of Discovery with an emphasis
in oral craniofacial anomalies.
An NIDCR-funded Specialized Caries Center
has enabled the Cariology Research Program in the Dows Institute for Dental
Research to develop a range of projects concerned with diagnosis, treatment,
and prevention of caries, and in particular, root caries in human
populations. This has led to a current interdisciplinary Program Project
Grant to develop early diagnostic means to diagnose dental caries so that
therapeutic interventions can be used to prevent conventional invasive
restorative procedures.
The important clinical
activities above led the College of Dentistry, in 1986, to establish the Center for Clinical Studies
in the Dows
Institute for Dental Research. Here, a strong link is maintained between
laboratory research and a formal clinic setting which gives access to
patient populations for evaluating diagnostic and treatment modalities,
materials, and therapeutic agents. The activities of the Center for Clinical
Studies are supported by the National Institutes of Health, private
foundations, and corporate grants and contracts.
Between 1988-1998, over 85 funded clinical research projects
were completed.
The Office of Clinical Research was established in August
1999 under the direction of Drs. Clark Stanford
and James Wefel, to administer
clinical research and sponsor clinical trials at
The University of Iowa College of
Dentistry.
The functions of the Office of
Clinical Research are:
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To move lab-based research towards clinical
research and then into the community;
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To increase collaboration with industry and
coordinate their clinical research;
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To coordinate clinical research across
departments within the College of Dentistry; and
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To promote College of Dentistry faculty
involvement in pre-clinical and clinical research activities.
Our
mission is to incorporate The University of Iowa College of
Dentistry's Dows Institute for Dental Research academic triad of Teaching, Service, and Research by using
well-trained and experienced investigators who are flexible, dependable and
rapid in response.
We collaborate with other research facilities at the
University of Iowa, specifically the
General Clinical Research Center.
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