School of Dentistry Ranks Third in NIH Funding

The UNC School of Dentistry's nationwide ranking among dental schools for total funding from the National Institutes of Health has jumped from fifth to third place, according to a report just released by the federal agency. The school's $8.4 million funding from NIH last year is part of an overall 20 percent increase in NIH funding to UNC-Chapel Hill. Dental schools at the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Washington were ranked first and second respectively. California received $16.4 million and Washington received $12 million.

UNC faculty received $207 million in NIH funding - up from $171.3 million in 1999 - ranking 13th overall among private and public universities nationwide, and up from 14th last year. Johns Hopkins University topped the list at $419.3 million.

The NIH, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is the principal biomedical research arm of the federal government. NIH research institutes are fighting diseases including AIDS, alcoholism, arthritis, cancer, diabetes and stroke, as well as tackling health topics related to aging, women and children, drug abuse, the environment, oral health and rapidly emerging multidisciplinary fields such as genomics and proteomics. Dentistry receives much of its NIH funding through the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

The growing awareness of important links between inflamed gums and other mouth tissues and such life threatening conditions as heart disease and stroke have led NIH and other private companies to award major research dollars to the School of Dentistry, according to Patrick Flood, professor of periodontology and associate dean of research. The UNC School of Dentistry has been a national leader in identifying the connection between chronic gum disease and more debilitating conditions. Among the significant research results, reported at UNC during the past five years are: women who suffer severe gum disease are more likely to deliver low-birth babies prematurely, periodontitis is a significant independent factor associated with heart disease and inflammation plays an undefined role in causing Type 2 diabetes.

The school's interdisciplinary Comprehensive Center for Inflammatory Diseases, established in the Summer of 1999 with a total grant of $21 million, including a five-year grant of $11.1 million from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, continues to study the link between oral health and other systemic diseases and has spawned more research initiatives and dollars. Flood expects the research at the center will continue to bring more interest from NIH and other corporations.

"Last year the initial center funding and new activity generated by the center brought $6 million for the school," he says. The center's research approach is branching out and will include treatment and prevention. For example, there is a new grant to study intervention in heart disease. Researchers are studying how the treatment of periodontal disease affects heart disease.

"We're also looking at the effects of inflammation [periodontal disease] on different on areas such as osteoporosis and bone loss, and stem cell regeneration," he says. "New therapies for other dental and medical conditions caused by inflammation disorders as well as HIV and oral cancer research are on our agenda. Increased interaction with pharmaceutical companies will result in more and better drugs, including gene therapy treatment."

Flood added that he expects dentistry research dollars will also increase as the school become more involved in the campus wide genomic initiative. Genomics involves the study of the sequence of DNA, which is the genetic material of living organisms. Knowledge of genes and their role in human disease may ultimately prove instrumental in cures for a variety of diseases.

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