{"id":113519,"date":"2016-06-09T17:40:16","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T21:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=113519"},"modified":"2016-06-09T17:45:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T21:45:36","slug":"nih-renews-funding-largest-training-grant-uconn-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/06\/nih-renews-funding-largest-training-grant-uconn-health\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH Renews Funding for Largest Training Grant at UConn Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From
From left, UConn Dental School Dean Monty MacNeil, Dr. Mina Mina, Dr. Sotirios Tetradis, and Dr. Jon Goldberg during UConn Health’s Skeletal, Cranioacial & Oral Biology annual symposium. (Photo by Tina Encarnacion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The largest and longest held training grant at UConn Health has been renewed for another five years by the National Institutes of Health for more than $3 million. The Skeletal, Craniofacial and Oral Biology (SCOB) training grant was developed in 1980 and was one of the first programs established in the United States dedicated to advancing academic dentistry by educating and preparing outstanding and dedicated researchers and leaders in dental education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UConn School of Dental Medicine was considered a pioneer at the time for introducing the DMD\/PhD training track,\u201d says Dr. Mina Mina<\/a>, professor and chair of the Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Department of Craniofacial Sciences, a graduate of the program and now its director. \u201cOur alumni have made an impact on the academic world by becoming successful researchers and educators not only in dental institutions but also in medical and graduate schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program is one of the major reasons cited for the UConn dental school winning the 2016 William J. Gies Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Academic Dental Institution<\/a> earlier this year. The Gies Awards are considered to be among the preeminent awards in the field of dental education.<\/p>\n

The Skeletal, Craniofacial and Oral Biology grant supports training for students pursuing a combined DMD and PhD; PhD; and DMD or PhD graduates (post docs) seeking advanced research training. Over the years, the program has supported more than 50 scientists in their career endeavors.<\/p>\n

Fifth year PhD student Spenser Smith is one of them.\u00a0 He\u2019s been working in the lab of skeletal biology researcher Anne Delany<\/a>, studying microRNAs and how they impact bone development. After a competitive approval process, Smith was awarded a SCOB training grant three years ago which has allowed him to gain valuable experiences he would not have been exposed to otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"From
From left, fifth-year PhD student Spenser Smith talking with former SCOB director William Upholt and Jon Goldberg, program co-director. (Photo by Tina Encarnacion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis grant has supported my salary and given me the freedom of choosing a certain direction in my research, which is very important in the scientific process to develop your own hypotheses and your own critical thinking skills,\u201d explains Smith.<\/p>\n

The training grant has also allowed Smith to travel to more than 15 scientific conferences. \u201cIt has helped to advance my career in that I\u2019m able to travel to these conferences and gain a greater understanding of skeletal biology, meet leading investigators in my field, all the while improving and refining my presentation skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was one of the 15 trainee presenters during UConn Health\u2019s Skeletal, Craniofacial & Oral Biology annual symposium on Monday which is funded by the training grant. The keynote speaker was Dr. Soitras Tetradis from the UCLA School of Dentistry, who is nationally renowned in the field of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology. Dr. Tetradis also led an informal session with the trainees where they discussed navigating an academic career and personal life.<\/p>\n

Rubbing shoulders with leading experts in the field can have a big impact on a trainee\u2019s career. The day-to-day relationship with their faculty advisor is also key.<\/p>\n

Jon Goldberg<\/a>, professor of Reconstructive Sciences, and co-director of the training program says, \u201cOne of the reasons we\u2019re successful is because of the quality of our mentors. Our committee selects the faculty, and then they identify the students, and as a team they apply for the funding. So it\u2019s competitive on a couple of levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith says mentorship has been crucial to his success. \u201cStudents and faculty have monthly meetings as a group and we talk about each other\u2019s research.\u00a0 We see how we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re supportive of each other, which is another important aspect of our training.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is getting them to be independent researchers,\u201d says Goldberg. \u201cAnd the evidence is very clear. The trainees who have presented at meetings, have published papers, and have been awarded their own grants even before they graduate, are most successful long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Skeletal, Craniofacial and Oral Biology training grant at UConn Health has been renewed for another five years by the National Institutes of Health for more than $3 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":113522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1867],"class_list":["post-113519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:20:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/113522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113519"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=113519"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=113519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}