Adapted from the University of Birmingham web site

Research into the science behind ultrasonic scalers, used by dental professionals to remove built up plaque, has identified that the formation of tiny bubbles around the head is key to the cleaning process.

The bubble formation, or cavitation, of water around the head of the scaler was observed using high speed cameras. Scalers of differing power, and head shape, were used and compared to quantify the patterns of cavitation.

The lead author of the paper that was published in PLOS one is Nina Vyas a PhD student from the PSIBS training centre with a project on ultrasonic scaling.  The overall project is an interdisciplinary research work that includes Mathematics and is led by Prof Walmsley in Dentistry. Her work using high-speed cameras has shown how cavitation removes the biofilm from the tooth. This opens up the concept of a non-touch technique when cleaning teeth and implants. The story has been well received on the Internet especially when ScienceDaily covered it on their site.

This is our last week in the old building – the sun sets on a glorious career.  So many patients, staff and students have passed through the building.  Lots of stories and memories. Time to reflect but also to be excited about a new chapter in Dentistry at Birmingham.

Sent on behalf of Professor Philip Lumley

Good morning everybody

I am delighted to be able to tell you that Dentistry has risen from 41st to 17th QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016 on the back of real solid improvements across the board.

We are ranked 3rd in the UK behind Kings and UCL.

Well done everybody on this achievement,  the best start we could have hoped for as we prepare to move into our new home at Pebble Mill

Best wishes

Phil Lumley

Head of School

The School of Dentistry is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr Will Palin to Professor and Dr Mel Grant to Senior Lecturer.

Professor Palin was previously Reader in Biomaterials at the School of Dentistry in the Institute of Clinical Sciences. His main area of research into photocurable materials used for both dental and wider biomaterial applications, has attracted grant funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and National Institute for Health Research and industry.

Dr Grant was previously  lecturer in biological sciences within the School of Dentistry in the Institute of Clinical Sciences. Uniquely situated in both the School of Dentistry and the School of Biosciences she has interdisciplinary collaborations with both scientists and clinicians. She is particularly interested in defining proteomic profiles of inflammatory fluids and understanding the processes and prevention of disease development and progression.

Dr Joey Shepherd, Lecturer in Oral Microbiology from the University of Sheffield gave a talk at our Science Lunchtime Seminar entitled ‘Bug Disco: Effects of acoustic vibration and ultrasound on bacteria’.  Her talk was on her research interests with ultrasound and mainly highlighted the destructive effect of cavitation and how it may be used to disrupt bacterial biofilms.  The talk was of interest to Ultrasound researchers at Birmingham and generated much discussion at the end.

Upen Patel successfully defended his PhD thesis on “KiloHertz ultrasound as a potential therapy for dental repair”, subject to minor corrections.  Here is the successful Dr Patel with his external examiners Dr Meghji and Professor Irwin.  His research looks at the use of ultrasound to repair cells and may have future implications on how we treat the damaged tissues in the tooth.  Upen has already had two papers published from his research on this exciting subject.  Well done Upen on a successful result!

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Professor Iain Chapple as the new Head of School of Dentistry with effect from 1st July 2016. Iain is currently Head of Periodontology at the University and a Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at the Birmingham Community Health Trust. He also holds Honorary Consultant contracts with the University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Iain has worked for the School of Dentistry for nearly 26 years and has published over 200 research papers. Iain has received major grants from the Medical Research Council, European Union and Industry. Iain is also a committed and enthusiastic teacher of undergraduate and postgraduate students within the College.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Iain on his new position and we look forward to working with him in the coming months. With the School of Dentistry sitting within the Institute of Clinical Sciences, Iain’s leadership will not only contribute towards success of the School, but also the wider goals of the Institute and College.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank Professor Philip Lumley for his hard work and dedication to the role as Head of School. Phil leaves the School of Dentistry in an extremely positive position which will stand Iain in good stead to lead on its continued development.

Kind regards

Professor David Adams
Pro-Vice Chancellor
Head of College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Dean of Medicine

Many congratulations to Owen Addison on receiving the Young Investigator award in the Distinguished Scientist awards for 2016 .  The award was presented to Owen at the International Association for Dental Research meeting which took place in Seoul, South Korea.   There was a sizeable Birmingham contingent present at the meeting which showcases the latest developments in Oral and Dental research.

On Tuesday 5^th July Rachel Sammons and Melissa Grant headed down to London for the ‘Into the Orifice’ launch event for the Science Gallery London’s Mouthy season. Working with artist Anna Dumitriu, the team are developing an artwork, Microbe Mouth, made using the bacteria Serratia sp NCIMB40259, which can create structures of hydroxyapatite, which makes up our bones and teeth. The final piece will be a bacterial grown hydroxyapatite tooth coated in ceramic glazes containing bacteria that associated with caries and periodontal disease (eg Streptococcal species and Porphyromonas gingivalis).  The tooth will be ready to view in November when the team will run a work shop in London, followed by an exhibition. At the launch the prototype tooth was shown for the first time and visitors were asked to contribute to the forth coming installation by glazing porcelain teeth with the ceramic glazes containing bacteria. The ideas incorporate research and practise of all the members of the Microbe Mouth team.

More can be found about Serratia sp NCIMB40259 at the following links

• http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/398/1/012005/pdf
• The Microbe Mouth project http://annadumitriu.tumblr.com/MicrobeMouth

We have had numerous visitors since the building opening and whenever they arrive, a tour of the building is part of the package.  Tours generally start on the top floor and work their way through the two sides of the building.  Everyone remarks on the light and space in the atrium.  They are impressed by the length and arrangement of the clinical areas.  Other areas that generate the wow factor include the learning zone, seminar rooms and the lecture theatres.  It is a privilege for staff to show off the new school and it is a pleasure to see people’s faces as they see the different facets of our new building.

Have you been on an open top bus tour of Birmingham?  No?  Well it is well worth doing and it is lots of fun.  After the end of the U21 Health Science conference, many delegates took advantage of the bus tour of Birmingham.  We visited many famous Birmingham landmarks.  It was a sunny afternoon and there was a lot of waving to the people of Birmingham as we journeyed through the Bull Ring Markets, the Jewellery Quarter and around the Mailbox.  The final stop was Winterbourne House where the local guides took as around the gardens.

Can you recognise all the landmarks/places?

Isabel Lopez-Oliva who is undertaking a PhD reports on her visit to Ohio State University.

“I had the pleasure to spend 3 weeks in June in Ohio State University in Dr Purnima Kumar’s lab where we carried a collaboration to study the subgingival microbiome in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Periodontitis. Everyone was extremely welcoming and always happy To spend time showing and explaining me what they do. As a dentist doing a PhD in a wet lab, it was the first time I was in a dry lab with a team of expert bioinformaticians but I learnt a lot from them and felt greeted from the first day. I recommend the experience to any PhD student thinking of doing a collaboration abroad and look forward to go back to Columbus in November to finish the analysis. “

Ingenious and Fearless Companions at the V&A

Following on from their successful ‘Ingenious and Fearless Companions’ exhibition at Birmingham Open Media (BOM) earlier in the year the High Altitude Bioprospecting (HAB) team, including Dr Melissa Grant from the School of Dentistry, participated in the London Design Festival’s Digital Design Weekend at the V&A at the end of September. Some of the exhibits from BOM were on show, including the wreckage of the crashed robotic device that the team had used to sample the stratosphere in their quest for extremophile microbes. Alongside this the team were 3D printing replicas of the robot and sampling the air in the V&A – more bioprospecting. The event was a resounding success with the V&A reaching capacity on the Saturday and being thronged with interested visitors on the Sunday. Although the final numbers of visitors are to be release they’re sure to beat last year’s 14,000! A fantastic opportunity to show case this work and gain exposure and impact. A short film is being made and will be released by the V&A showcasing all the exhibitors across the weekend.

We were fortunate to have Luc van der Sluis visit from Gronigen with a team of biofilm researchers visit the School.  He was the guest of Phil Tomson and whilst Luc has visited Birmingham on a number of occasions, this was the first time that he had been to our new building.  Luc gave a lecture to the School and Hospital on the latest diagnosis and treatment planning for the compromised pulp.  He illustrated the talk with reference to the latest findings in the literature.  The picture shows Luc with Phil Tomson before the lecture took place

The School of Dentistry was pleased to host the doctoral students from the Sci-Phy (Physical Sciences for Health) doctoral training centre which is funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council).

This programme aims to train a new generation of scientists as interdisciplinary researchers with a broad skill-base who will be at the forefront of developing physical science to contribute to breakthroughs in biomedical sciences and healthcare. Students apply their skills to address three key UK healthcare challenges:

• Cardiovascular disease – the major killer of over 65’s in the UK
• Ageing, a UK healthcare grand challenge
• Trauma -the major killer of under 40s in the UK and over 65’s

The centre has many collaborations with industry, several national research institutes and both the QE Hospitals all of which are embedded in the programme to ensure developments have immediate impact on patients. Researchers at the dental hospital also input into the programme and our doctoral students have impacted on endodontics, wound healing and periodontology.

The day was a showcase of the activities of the centre taking place in the dental school/hospital and there is an attached programme. Staff are welcome to attend the lectures and there is lunch provided during the poster viewing session.

There was a warm welcome & introduction to the Sci-Phy centre by Hamid Dehghani and this was followed by PhD student Nina Vyas who outline the PSIBS (Physical Scinces for Imaging in the Biological Sciences) Experience. PSIBS was the forerunner of Sci-Phy. Then there were presentations on the future Science Programme of the Sci-Phy by Prof Ann Logan, Dr Rob Neely and Dr Pola Goldberg-Oppenheimer. The session finished with the Sci-Phy Experience by PhD student Megan Cooke.

Then there was a PSIBS/Sci-Phy Student Posters session in the foyer of LT1/LT2 lecture theatres. The posters covered imaging and life science research currently being undertaken at the Centre. There were also a number of representatives from Industry joining the session who were here to learn more about research at the University.

Dr Rui Albuquerque in Oral Medicine hosted European visitors to Birmingham as part of an Erasmus+ project on smoking cessation.  The full title of the project is Smoking Cessation advice : Healthcare professional Training.

The aim of the research is to provide a pioneering EU smoking cessation e-learning tool.  The team aim to increase the possibility of a reduction in smoking within the EU population and consequently with an economic and healthcare impact.  The photograph taken by Marina Tipton shows Rui with project participants from Portugal, Italy, Spain and France

There was a great turn out by dental researchers at the International Association for Dental Research which was held in San Francisco in 22nd to 25th September. The School of Dentistry , the University of Birmingham was there as well and we presented our internationally renowned research to the 6,000+ delegates. There were both oral and poster presentations by dental researchers from the School.

The number of presentations and their timing made it difficult to attend all of the Birmingham presentations but they included work on

• light curing of composites
• industrial research on toothbrushing
• removal of biofilm by ultrasonic scalers
• materials used by UK dentists
• Periodontal Health and its global impact
• Markers of Periodontal disease
• Post operative dental pain management

The standard of our presentations was commented on by many delegates.

A special mention goes to Jeremy Boyles (BDS5) who presented a poster on “Does student debt effect dental students and dentists stress levels”.  Well done to Jeremy on his presentation and I know that he gained much experience from meeting clinicians and researchers both Nationally and Internationall

Another special mention goes to Isabel Lopez-Oliva who is one of our PhD students. Isabel won the President’s Award of the IADR Periodontal Research group for best paper. Her presentation is entitled “Circulating antibodies to citrullinated proteins in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Periodontitis “. Congratulations to Isa. This is the 3rd time the University of Birmingham has won this award in the last 7 years, so Isa has done us proud.

Finally everyone enjoyed the City of San Francisco which provided a beautiful backdrop to the conference. Next year the IADR is in London and we look forward to more Birmingham research being highlighted at this conference.

The ‘Festival of graduate research’ (28 March 2017)

Fiars Albaaj – Final year PhD student at the School of Dentistry
31/03/2017 

This Festival was held in the Birmingham medical school In the Wolfson common room and the Leonard Deacon lecture theatre. The event is mainly organized for the third year postgraduate research students to show their project journey and to share their laboratory work experiences and knowledge with other PGR students of different levels of study. The event started with registration and refreshments in the common room for 30 minutes, thereafter, the participated students’ posters were evaluated in an odd and even order. The even numbered posters had a morning evaluation and the odd numbered posters, such as my poster, had an afternoon evaluation.

This anniversary was held in the Birmingham medical school In the Wolfson common room and the Leonard Deacon lecture theatre. The event is mainly organized for the third year postgraduate research students to show their project journey and to share their laboratory work experiences and knowledge with other PGR students of different levels of study. The event started with registration and refreshments in the common room for 30 minutes, thereafter, the participated students’ posters were evaluated in an odd and even order. The even numbered posters had a morning evaluation and the odd numbered posters, such as my poster, had an afternoon evaluation. Seven students were selected in advance for an oral presentation through morning and afternoon sessions in the lecture theatre. The selection, as we told by the organizing committee, was made on the basis of research science and discipline. Also there was a nice break for the lunch. Many types of food were included with plenty of juice, tea and coffee drinks throughout the event time. I have obtained many benefits via several questions on my project either from PGR students or from the judging committee member. The questions brought my attention for different ideas, such as which sections that should be expanded or reduced during my write up stage or who can I modify my research aim to be more understandable. Other colleagues from the school of dentistry like Naveed, Cleo, Farha, and Nurul were shown a superb poster presentation in different interesting subjects and all of us were got a lot of fun and experiences from this event. Finally, Congratulations for students who got prizes for their excellent works.

Gay Smith who is the lead research technician at the School reached an important milestone as birthdays go.  Here are some pictures from the School’s surprise party together with the research technicians ensuring it is a surprise for her!

Professor Paul Cooper visited China as part of the University of Birmingham Research Leaders Academic Delegation.  It was a busy week for Paul with visits to several institutions.

At the start the delegation met with Mathew Rous, British Consul General Guangzhou and representatives from Science and Innovation Network and British Council. Then on successive days Paul visited the following Universities

1. Jinan University (South Campus)
   • Round-table discussion took place with staff in Dentistry and this will lead to potential collaboration from JU.
2. Ju Sun Yat-Sen University School of Stomatology, Guangdong
   • Paul gave a presentation to staff and tour of clinics and research facilities.  There were discussions about future  ecollaborations with the Head & Deputy Head of School.  Following this visit there has already been research student exchanges.
3. Huazhong University of Science & Technology Centre for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics 
4. Department of Stomatology, Xiehe Hospital, Wuhan
   • Presentation to staff, round-table discussion and tour of clinics with collaboration with the Head of School – Lily Chen.
5. Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)
   • Here there were discussions with the Medical School Planning Committee and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Prof Paul Cooper has a strong track record on Chinese Engagement with 12 publications which have arisen from continued collaboration following on from previous visits with the  State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an Shaanxi, and  the Institute of Stomatology, Nanjing Medical University, Jiangsu.