Research areas in the University of Iowa's Dental Science Building, home to the university's College of Dentistry, will undergo significant upgrades and modernization, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine, IA.
"Improving the college's research area is crucial to facilitating innovative research, retaining leading researchers, and enabling these scholars to do their best work," stated David Johnsen, dean of the College of Dentistry, said in a press release. "It also is vital for recruiting new research faculty, since the college must be able to offer adequate and appropriately equipped laboratory space for incoming investigators.
Clark Stanford, the college's dean for research, noted that since the construction of the Dental Science Building in 1973, the field of oral biomedical research has changed significantly with the growth of cellular, molecular, genetic, and proteomic technologies. He said the Dental Science Building's research area needs laboratories that support these new methods, which are now an intrinsic part of contemporary biomedical research.
Stanford added that the $1 million grant from the Carver trust will allow the college to develop state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for two key research programs: the Molecular Craniofacial Anomalies Research Program and the Biomaterials, Bone, and Tissue Engineering Research Program.
The college's general and specialty dental care clinics receive about 125,000 patient visits each year.
