{"id":238162,"date":"2025-11-19T08:57:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=238162"},"modified":"2025-11-19T09:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T14:01:12","slug":"student-researcher-shines-at-national-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/11\/student-researcher-shines-at-national-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Researcher Shines at National Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadhana Sankar, a member of the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2027, received the Hinman Research Symposium\u2019s highest honor\u2014the Most Outstanding Presentation Award in the Basic Science Research category\u2014at the 2025 conference in Memphis, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The symposium showcases oral and poster presentations of research projects by dental students and graduate trainees from dental schools across North America and Europe. This year\u2019s symposium hosted 90 students representing 50 dental schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresenting at the Hinman Research Symposium was an inspiring and transformative experience,\u201d said Sankar. \u201cI had the opportunity to engage in meaningful scientific discussions with students, researchers, and faculty from across the world, all deeply committed to advancing dentistry through innovation and discovery. Hearing about such impactful work across the field broadened my perspective and strengthened my passion for academic dentistry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"two
Sadhana Sankar with the University of Tennessee Health Center’s College of Dentistry’s dean Dr. Ken Tilashalski (left) and associate dean for research Dr. Douglas Dixon (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sankar\u2019s award-winning research focuses on promoting cartilage repair and developing a novel therapeutic approach for temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis\u2014a debilitating condition that currently has no cure. Based on promising results in mice, Sankar is using a clinically relevant large animal model to determine whether this approach can restore TMJ cartilage lost in TMJ-OA disease.<\/p>\n

Sankar worked on this research in Dr. Caroline Dealy\u2019s lab during the summer of 2024. Dealy, a professor at UConn Health with appointments in several departments, including orthodontics, biomedical engineering, orthopedic surgery, and cell biology, commended Sankar on her award.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngaging dental students in basic and clinical research hones their skills in critical thinking and creative problem solving, ultimately helping to drive evidence-based patient care and laying the groundwork for future innovations in dentistry.\u00a0 I’ve been privileged to host many outstanding dental students in my research laboratory over the years and am thrilled for Sadhana’s success in her project,\u201d said Dealy.<\/p>\n

Dr. Aditya Tadinada, professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, is the director of student research and associate dean for graduate research, education, and training at the UConn School of Dental Medicine. Tadinada also shared some congratulatory words for Sankar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a matter of great pride to see our dental students do so well in their research endeavors and being recognized nationally,\u201d said Tadinada. \u201cSadhana receiving the first place in the Basic Science Category at the prestigious Hinman Research Symposium is a testament to the strong student research program we have here at the UConn School of Dental Medicine. Many congratulations to Sadhana and her mentor, Dr. Caroline Dealy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresenting the UConn School of Dental Medicine on a national stage has been an immense honor,\u201d Sankar continued. \u201cI am truly grateful for the mentorship of my PI, Dr. Dealy, and the support of Dr. Tadinada, which made this achievement possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third-year dental student Sadhana Sankar received prestigious award at the Hinman Symposium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":238168,"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":[2166,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-238162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 22:54:59","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\/238162","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\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238162"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238180,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238162\/revisions\/238180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/238168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238162"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=238162"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=238162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}