Scientific grants totaling nearly $3.3 million are funding research at Baylor College of Dentistry in several areas, such as therapies for adult periodontitis, estrogen's effects both on cholesterol build-up in the arteries and on the temporo-mandibular (jaw) joint and its disorders/diseases. Academic grants for more than $2.1 million fund a variety of education programs and research at Baylor College of Dentistry.

A study investigating health insurance services in small factories on the U.S.-Mexico border seeks to learn how these small firms handle health insurance benefits for employees. This project is jointly funded by the South Texas Center and the city of McAllen, and the results will assist in finding ways to address the growing number of uninsured residents in the border region.

Led by Jane Bolin, Ph.D., researchers at the School of Rural Public Health are examining approaches to implementing disease management with rural populations. The combined effects of rural poverty and fewer numbers of health providers increase the prevalence and effects of chronic diseases for rural Americans. Chronic disease management offers the potential for improvement in the overall health of individuals with chronic diseases, while at the same time reducing overall costs of patient care.

Richard H. Finnell, Ph.D., director of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, studies neural tube defects such as spina bifida and craniofacial defects like cleft palate, conditions that cripple and disfigure thousands of babies each year. Finnell is in his second year as leading investigator of a $5.6 million, five-year federal program project grant. At the end of the project, he hopes to shed new light on the causes of these defects, which in turn will increase the ability to prevent them.

Agricultural pollution and its health effects continue to be a concern, particularly among rural and farming communities. School of Rural Public Health faculty member Susan E. Carozza, Ph.D., leads a team that is studying the link between agricultural pesticides, prenatal exposure and childhood cancers. The team just began the third year of this five-year, $973,922 National Institutes of Health-funded grant. Carozza's team uses geographic information system (GIS) methods to create historical land-use maps for assessing potential exposure to agricultural pesticides.

The head of the College of Medicine's department of psychiatry, Kathryn Kotrla, M.D., is pursuing new techniques in neuroimaging--the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to view what is happening in the brains of people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. MRI can now be used to create "movies" of processes within parts of the body, including the brain. Some of the newer applications of magnetic resonance imaging include functional MRI (FMRI)--in which brain activity can be viewed as it happens--and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), which allows researchers to discern the concentrations of various chemicals in the brain.

Baylor College of Dentistry fosters a rich academic environment for student research for dental, dental hygiene and graduate students. The college's nationally recognized Student Research Group has supported and encouraged its members' research interests for 30 years. Student researchers are winning awards and fellowships at the national level, and two BCD students are top officers in the National Student Research Group.

At the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Stephen H. Safe, Ph.D., has established interactions with several scientific groups at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. They are working on further developing compounds made by Safe that show clinical potential as anti-cancer agents for treatment of different tumors.

At the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Magnus Höök, Ph.D., teamed up with scientists at Oxford University to publish a paper in Nature that shows how disease-causing bacteria might use a specialized zipper mechanism to attach to human cells. The discovery may help shed light on how certain bacteria can invade human cells. As bacteria become increasingly drug resistant and cause sometimes lethal infections, research breakthroughs like Höök's are critically important in the search for new strategies to combat these potentially deadly microbes.

The College of Medicine is pursuing opportunities for commercialization of research conducted by faculty members through the Office of Research Development, formed in 2002. The office's director, Gene Garrison, has worked to develop a proactive relationship with researchers at the college. The office's focus on intellectual property development should ultimately lead to commercial applications for faculty members' discoveries, as a number of cutting-edge technologies they are developing may have the potential for licensing by biotechnology companies, or for forming the technology base for new stand-alone companies.

The Center for Microencapsulation and Drug Delivery is directed by Allison Ficht, Ph.D. The center is a collaborative effort to promote commercial development of a microencapsulated drug delivery system to ultimately decrease mortalities from a wide variety of diseases. The center also serves as a national and international resource for the development and FDA approval of microencapsulated delivery devices.

Institute of Biosciences and Technology researcher Kishore K. Wary, Ph.D., has identified a set of 11 genes that were not previously known to be associated with the processes of angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. Wary is conducting functional studies of these genes and proteins to gain knowledge of their mode of action and signaling pathways. He hopes to reveal new drug targets for designing diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic approaches for many diseases, including wound healing, atherosclerosis and growth of solid tumors.

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