Research Advancement Committee of the AAOM

In order to endorse and promote research in oral medicine, the AAOM Research Advancement Committee (RAC) was formed to provide annual research funding to support three activities. First, oral medicine residents enrolled in North American Oral Medicine training programs are offered funding to pursue clinical or basic science research during their training. There is an annual solicitation for applications and three $2,000 awards are made. Residents must be supervised by a faculty member from their training program. They also receive mentoring through the year, as needed, from the AAOM RAC members, all of whom have a major commitment to research. 

Applications must be in the form of a formal research proposal that describes:

• The significance of the problem or issue to be addressed (study topic)
• An overview of what is currently known about the study topic
• Methods for addressing the problem or issue
• Anticipated outcomes
• Proposed use of funds (budget justification)
• Applications should not exceed four double spaced typed pages.

In 2015, the RAC funded three applications. The studies are ongoing and there are plans for the work to be published. The RAC encourages abstracts from these projects to be presented at the 2017 AAOM meeting. 

There are two awardees for 2016-2017:

1. Tiffany Tavares, DDS whose topic is “Combination therapy with PI3K/mTOR and transcriptional inhibitors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.”
2. Roxanne Bavarian, DMD, whose topic is “Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) as a novel therapeutic in the treatment of gastrointestinal mucositis.” 

Tiffany and Roxanne are both residents at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Their Program Director is Alessandro Villa, DDS, PhD, MPH

Applications for the 2017-2018 period should be sent to the Committee Chair by May 1st and a decision is usually made by June 1st.

In addition to the availability of research funds for Oral Medicine residents, the RAC is currently working on a plan to offer funding for dental students interested in the field of Oral Medicine.

The third aspect of this AAOM funding was intended to develop lectures and workshops on research methodology and the development of grant applications for each annual AAOM meeting. The inaugural effort for this funding was to bring Dr. Bruce Pihlstrom to the 2016 meeting in Atlanta. This talk was an outstanding introduction to clinical research along with anecdotes from his extensive experience as an academic, a researcher and his time at the NIDCR/NIH. 

Return to 2016 Fall AAOM News