Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon
Wednesday 13 August 2014 11:42am

SJWRI researchers have had great success in the recent NZ Dental Association Research Foundation and Ministry of Health Oral Health Research funding rounds, announced in mid-August.

NZ Dental Association Research Foundation
Established in 1964, the NZ Dental Association Research Foundation awards grants for research projects related to dentistry. Its overall purpose is to "promote, foster and extend the study and practice of the art and science of dentistry in New Zealand". Since its inception, the Foundation has provided financial support for decades of dental and oral health research projects within the Dental School and the SJWRI, to help extend the boundaries of dental knowledge and to promote the fostering and extension of the study and practice of the art and science of dentistry in New Zealand. The Research Foundation is funded by donations from dental practitioners, the dental supply industry and other businesses, as well as profits from the annual NZDA Conference and other fundraising activities. The SJWRI and the Faculty are hugely grateful for the role and contribution of the NZDA Research Foundation in supporting our research over the past five decades, in the process helping many of our Masters, PhD and specialising dental postgraduate students complete their studies.

Our successful applicants in the 2014 round are:

Principal applicant Other applicants Project title Awarded
Kullasit Chutipongpisit Venkata Praveen Parachuru, Alison Rich Lymphangiogenesis in the oral squamous cell carcinoma microenvironment $9,285
Dawn Coates Mohammad Al-Ansary, Lara Friedlander, Gregory Seymour, Bernadette Drummond Primary tooth pulp as a source of progenitor cells for permanent tooth pulp- dentine regeneration $13,221
Lara Friedlander Suzanne Hanlin, Ben Daniels (HEDC) Direct pulp capping in New Zealand general dental practice – A practice based research network study $14,970*
Julia Horsfield (Pathology) Joseph Antoun, Mauro Farella, Catherine Carleton A novel model for exploring the causes and treatment of craniofacial birth defects in children $10,400
Mikhail Keniya Richard Cannon NanoPhotometer for dental research and drug discovery $15,000
Murray Meikle Trudy Milne, Yana Itskovich, Mauro Farella, Richard Cannon A new approach to engineering 3 dimensional constructs of human bone matrix in a mechanically-active environment $11,862
Venkata Praveen Parachuru Alison Rich, Warwick Duncan, Gregory Seymour MicroRNA expression profile in healthy and diseased gingival tissues $15,000
Alison Rich Avadhoot Avadhani, Trudy Milne, Venkata Praveen Parachuru, Gregory Seymour Role of interleukin 17 in invasion of oral cancer $14,697
Names italicised above are SJWRI postgraduate students (either PhD or DClinDent).
* Partly funded by $10,000 grant-in-aid from the Continuing Dental Education Trust (Auckland) Research Award (CDET)

Ministry of Health Oral Health Research Grants
In 2007, the NZ Ministry of Health established a funding programme for oral health research, managed by the NZDA and its Research Foundation, to fund research targeted towards the oral health priorities of the Ministry. Priority is given to oral health research that targets children and adolescents; people of all ages with physical, intellectual, behavioural, or cognitive disabilities, or who are medically compromised; people experiencing inequalities of outcome (e.g. Maori, Pacific and low-income populations); maternal oral health; older adults; and research focusing on promoting oral health, building links with primary care and building the oral health workforce.

Our successful applicants in the 2014 round are:

Principal applicant Other applicants Project title Awarded
Mauro Farella Ghassan Idris, Christopher Robertson, Barbara Galland (Women's & Children's Health) Efficacy of a mandibular advancement appliance on sleep disordered breathing children $24,374
Lyndie Foster Page Ellen Clark (Northland DHB) , Murray Thomson, Shareen Ali (NDHB) Supervised tooth brushing trial in Northland Intermediate Schools $40,766
Li (Peter) Mei Gareth Benic, Mauro Farella, Nick Heng Efficacy of the oral probiotic Streptococcus salivarius in managing biofilm formation in patients wearing fixed orthodontic appliances: A double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial $11,410
Alison Rich Hina Narayan, Trudy Milne, Gregory Seymour In vitro effect of cigarette smoke on DNA methylation in human gingival fibroblasts $14,179

Congratulations to all successful applicants.

Back to top