The Graduate Program in Oral Biology is proud to have four students competing in the 2008 AADR/Johnson & Johnson Oral Health Products Hatton Competition at the annual meeting of the American Association of Dental Research in Dallas, Texas. Three out of the four students are finalists, and two won first place.
"It's unusual to have so many Hatton finalists from a single institution, and the fact that three of our four competitors made it to the finals is a real tribute to the quality of post-graduate education in the Oral Biology graduate program at the School of Dentistry," said Dr. Joel Rudney, the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry's interim associate dean for research. "This is an achivement that we all can be proud of."
On April 2, 2008, Rodrigo Giacaman, Anjalee Vacharaksa, and Yu Lei were named finalists in their divisions and will move on to compete at the International Association of Dental Research meeting in July 2008 in Toronto.
Two students, Rodrigo Giacaman and Anjalee Vacharaksa, won 1st place in the postdoctoral and senior divisions, respectively. Drs. Giacaman, Vacharaksa, and Lei are students of Prof. Mark Herzberg. Julio Sotillo Rodriguez is a student of Prof. Raj Gopalakrishnan.
The competitors and their projects are:
Porphyromonas gingivalis increases keratinocyte transfer of HIV-1 to permissive cells
R.A. GIACAMAN, A.C. ASRANI, K.H. GEBHARD, E.A. DIETRICH, A. VACHARAKSA, K.F. ROSS, and M.C. HERZBERG, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Restricted HIV-1 Infection in TERT-2 Oral Keratinocytes
A. VACHARAKSA, A.C. ASRANI, R.A. GIACAMAN, K.F. ROSS, and M.C. HERZBERG, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Methionine Sulfoxide Reductase Protects Surface Adhesins on Streptococcus gordonii
Y. LEI, Y. ZHANG, J. KRETH, and M.C. HERZBERG, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
Osteopenia in Twisted Gastrulation-Deficient Mice Results from Enhanced Osteoclast Function
J. SOTILLO RODRIGUEZ, A. CARLSON, B. MACKENZIE, T. SCHWARZ, K. MANSKY, A. PETRYK, and R. GOPALAKRISHNAN, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA