Our Dental School is 1 year old and we have the first new, purpose built Hospital and School of Dentistry for almost 40 years.  Our innovative building has been designed to offer world-class research facilities and a modern learning environment for over 600 students and trainees.

Therefore the time was right for our researchers from the University of Birmingham to showcase our cutting edge research.  The day was specifically aimed at our industry collaborations driving innovation in the sector, touring the research facilities and networking with leading individuals in the sector.

There were introductory Speeches as follows

• Professor Tim Softley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer
• Professor David Adams, Head of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences
• Professor Iain Chapple, Head of the School of Dentistry

Professor Herb Sewell delivered the key note speech: ‘Dental Research Reaches Beyond the Mouth’, alongside an overview of the unique Life Science capabilities in Birmingham and snapshots of the University’s research in Dentistry and related areas.

Following this there were 10 minute presentations “Oral Sciences Research in Six”

• Biomaterials – Dr Richard Shelton
• Phototherapy – Professor Will Palin
• Biofilms – Dr Sarah Kuehne
  
• Periodontal disease – Professor Iain Chapple
• Ultrasound research and nanoparticles – Nina Vyas
• Clinical trials – Professor Thomas Dietrich
  

Finally there were tours of the building to include the clnical and teaching areas to include research laboratories.

The very first Open Wide exhibition will start on the 14th June. This will feature research by Dr Rachel Sammons and an art science collaboration between Rachel and Dr Melissa Grant and bioartist Anna Dumitriu. There will be an open event on the 7th July where you can join Rachel and Melissa for a free workshop (2-5pm) and then hear about the work in a short evening talk (5-6pm). Its all free and there will be some refreshments available after 5pm.

More information can be found on the Open Wide website

Dr Melissa Grant
Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences, School of Dentistry, Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham , 5 Mill Pool Way, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7EG, UK

Telephone +44(0)121 466 5520 (Dentistry)
Telephone +44(0)121 414 2652 (Biosciences)
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/dentistry/Grant-Melissa.aspx

Professor Walmsley was awarded the British Dental Association John Tomes medal at the Honours and Awards Gala Dinner held at Manchester Town Hall at the BDA conference.  The John Tomes Medal is awarded “in recognition of scientific eminence and outstanding service to the Dental Profession”.  Here we see Damien collecting his medal and scroll from Peter Dyer (L), President of the BDA and Mick Armstrong Chair of the Principal Executive Committee (PEC).

Joanna Batt reports on a ‘Hands-on’ event of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dentistry and Oral Health

On 12th July I attended the above event at the Houses of Parliament – in attendance was the Chief Dental Officer and her deputy. This was a fascinating event including some cutting edge (in some cases literally!) technology which was being pitched to the politicians with an interest in Dentistry within the UK. Photo’s were not permitted unfortunately within the building for security reasons hence the lack of pretty pictures, but a dye to identify demineralised enamel derived from jellyfish, improved Cad-Cam technology and lasers were all on the menu alongside dental simulators. This was an opportunity to see some of the faces connected with dental politics in the UK as well as seeing companies really promoting innovations in dentistry – whether or not they will be coming to a clinic near you soon remains to be seen!

Joanna Batt

Here’s a picture of Kasia Gurzawska with her winners certificate at BSODR Plymouth. This was awarded at the Dinner the Conference Dinner at the Royal Marine Barracks Stonehouse, 7th September 2017. She gets £1500 travel award for the PER GSK-MINTIG prize win. It was highly competitive and her work was on “Mathematical, numerical and biomechanical analysis using finite element methods (FEM) of mandible after treatment with bone subs titute materials and loading with implant-supported prostheses.”

Prof Chapple sent the following email around to all staff.

“We had a tremendous turn out from Birmingham staff at the annual BSODR in Plymouth this week, and especially from our early career researchers.

I would like to thank all those that attended for representing Birmingham so well and demonstrating the really vibrant research culture in the School, Institute, College and University.

Paul cooper who was involved in judging some of the prizes reported that our young staff did exceptionally well.

Thanks again and well done.

We are delighted to announce that Kasia Gurzawska won the BSODR MINTIG research prize in Plymouth this week.  Many congratulations to Kasia on a fantastic achievement.

We are extremely proud of Praveen Sharma who entered a hugely competitive Senior Colgate competition at BSODR in Plymouth. Praveen boldly presented a clinical study in what is a strong basic science premier competition and did incredibly well to get through to the final, where he came 4th out of 22. Many congratulations to Prav on this remarkable achievement.”

U21 HEALTH SCIENCES GROUP ANNUAL MEETING 2017
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
18-22 September 2017

The theme of this year’s meeting was “Global Health: Challenges, Constraints and Implementation Models.  It was hosted by Andre Swart and his team from the University of Johannesburg.  Details of the conference may be found on their web site
http://u21health.org

On the first day of the conference, the Doctoral Student Forum took place “Sustaining Communities through my Research” was the title of the day.  This is designed to enable and facilitate international networking opportunities for doctoral student participants. Major segments include master-classes; presentations and critiques of participating doctoral students’ work; Q&As and poster presentations. The forum aim is to focus on students projects and to network with fellow students across the network.

The second day featured the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Workshop.  This covered the SDG Awareness Week, the Global Learning Partnership, SDG Student Workshops and SDG Case Studies. The U21 SDG is the U21 HSG’s longest-running initiative. As they continue the work to support the implementation of the SDGs in university curricula, they are looking for new members to join their working group and make sure they have a truly diverse representation of universities and disciplines.

The opening session of the main conference was on Global Health and covered the subject of “The seven tactics unhealthy commodity industries use to undermine public health”. This was a thought provoking lecture by Prof Rob Moodie, University of Melbourne.   He showed that big business dominates health messages in the areas of alcohol and sugar.  He put the argument forward that the big soft drink companies push their brands leading to the present day problems posed by non-communicable diseases.  This theme was continued by Dr Nolunthando Nematswerani, Discovery Health Care, who looked at Private/Public Partnerships and Global Health.  Prof Per-Olof Östergren, Lund University discussed the constraints that hinder us being able to achieve Global Health and how to tackle them.

The conference featured a presentation on the Universitas 21 network and also a workshop by the U21 HSG Teaching Excellence Award Recipients.  Their talk on Turning Moral Distress into Moral Resilience included a large amount of audience participation.

Our very own Caroline Bradbury-Jones (UoB-nursing) led on the subject of Gender based violence providing evidence that this is a global topic that needs tackling. This was followed by a talk on Childrens’ environmental health Prof Angela Mathee, UJ/SA Medical Research Council.

Other subjects covered in the conference included a session on Mental Health and the ongoing global problems. The continuing problem of managing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in a society with high levels of inequality was another session that was highlighted in the converence.

The U21 Health Sciences Group run very successful Summer Schools for all Undergraduate Health Students.  “Global Health and the Social Determinants of Health” was the theme of the summer school hosted by the University of Johannesburg 2017 was outlined by Mr. Sibusiso Mdletshe, University of Johannesburg.  It brought together students from all interdisciplinary backgrounds.

The U21 Health Sciences Summer School 2018 will be held in Lund and details may be found on the website
http://u21health.org/summer-school/

On the final day, each of the health groups reported on their activities.  The dentistry group who included Prof Walmsley and Dr Morris had the opportunity to visit the dental school at the University of Witswaterand (Wits).  We met with the dental staff and discussed education, research and other activities.  The hospital is extremely busy but the preclinical and clinical area were well resource and the throughput of patients is very impressive.

There was a strong presence from the College of Medical and Dental Sciences and the group consisted of the following

John Morris, Dentistry, Institute of Clinical Sciences (ICS)
Damien Walmsley, Dentistry, ICS
Caroline Bradbury-Jones, Nursing, ICS
Julie Taylor, Nursing, ICS
Robbie Roberts, Head of Administration, MDS
Anthony Cox, Pharmacy, ICS
Laura Jones, Institute of Applied Health Research

There was also a touch of sadness as we said goodbye to the Executive Officer, Caroline Voisine, who has done so much for the U21 Health Sciences Group and we wish her well on her future career at the University of British Columbia.  We also welcome Corinna Greenwood who will be the new incoming Executive Officer.  Corinna will be based at the College of Medical and Dental Sciences and we look forward to working with her on the ongoing projects with the U21 Health Sciences Group.

There was also the opportunity to visit Johannesburg and the highlight was the trip to Soweto and the tour of Nelson Mandela’s house.  It was very humbling to see the home of one of the great statesmen of the world.

A few of the guys took a trip to the Ivoclar factory in Liechtenstein.  This is a picture of a few people you may recognise as they tour the dental manufacturing facilities there.  They look like they are part of film crew.

All week Open Wide has been hosting workshops in the foyer as part of the University’s Arts and Science Festival (https://artsandsciencefestival.co.uk/). Visitors, staff and students have been making felt microbes to take home or to incorporate into the Slime Cities exhibition, which explores the biofilms of our mouths. The types of microbes have been many and varied – from strings of Streptococci and flagellated Pseudomonads to ‘bee’ and ‘ladybird’ microbes too! The workshops run til the 16^th of March and there is more information on the open wide website (https://bdhopenwide.com/exhibitions/slime-cities/) and on the arts and science festival website (https://artsandsciencefestival.co.uk/festival-event/felt-microbe/).

Dental Research Visit to São Paulo, Brazil
12th to 16th March 2018
School of Dentistry, Institute of Clinical Sciences,
College of Medical and Dental Sciences

The School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham undertook a major visitation of three dental schools in São Paulo, Brazil for the week of 12th to 16th March 2018.  The visit included both industrial and academic components.  The School delegation was comprised of Prof Walmsley, Dr Camilleri, Prof Cooper and Dr Tomson.
The industrial part of the tip was to Angelus, a Brazilian company located in Londrina, Brazil.  Dr Josette Camilleri received funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Proximity to Discovery (PtD) for the visit to Londrina.  Angelus develop a range of Biomaterial products for dentistry including Endodontic materials and are looking to collaborate with Birmingham.

This industrial visit provided the School of Dentistry with the opportunity to promote our academic research collaborations.  Professor Damien Walmsley, Medical and Dental Sciences (MDS) Director of Internationalisation joined the delegation for the academic component as the visit allowed Dentistry to showcase research collaborations beyond dentistry and interdisciplinary links through electronic learning and engineering were highlighted.

There were four academic staff on the dental school visit, Prof Paul Cooper, Prof Damien Walmsley, Dr Phil Tomson and Dr Josette Camilleri.  Our lecture tour was expertly organised by Dr Flavia Pires Rodrigues, our UoB Brazil Officer who is also a Dentist with a doctorate in Biomaterials.  Flavia arranged a series of lectures with the following “Faculdade de Odontologia – FO” institutions.

UNESP – Universidade Estadual Paulista (FO-UNESP) on 12/03/2018
Institute of Science and Technology Campus of San Jose dos Campos
Lead contact – Dr. Alexandre Borges
Audience – Post-graduate students and Researchers

USP – The University of São Paulo School of Dentistry (FO-USP) on 13/03/2018
Main Contact – Dr. Adriana Bona Matos
Visit to the FOUSP facilities and clinics
Audience – Post-graduate students and Researchers

Unicamp – FOP-UNICAMP-PIRACICABA on 14/03/2018
Meetings with Dr. Karina Gonzales Silverio Ruiz, Dr. Brenda Gomes and Dr. Marcelo Giannini At Unicamp, Josette had the opportunity to discuss further research with one of her collaborators Prof Marina Marciano de Silva.
Visit to the FOP-UNICAMP-PIRACICABA facilities and clinics
Audience – Post-graduate students and Researchers

A map showing the dental schools we visited.

The Birmingham lectures highlighted the scope and capabilities of interdisciplinary research in Biomaterials, e.g. from stem cell biology, inflammation & ageing to biomaterials science. The speciality focus was on endodontic research.  Our highly rated educational technology teaching was also emphasised.  The lecturers and titles were as follows.

• Dr. Phil Tomson – Adopting a biological approach to the treatment of pulp and periradicular disease
• Professor Paul Cooper – Healing and Inflammation in the dentine-pulp complex
• Dr. Josette Camilleri – Testing materials for use in regenerative dentistry and endodontics
• Professor Damien Walmsley – How will we be teaching in the year 2025?
• Dr. Flavia Rodrigues – Research collaboration with the University of Birmingham-UK
• Angelus: Innovation and Research Support

The lectures were broadcast live from USP and are held on YouTube
Presentations from the hosts and round table discussions following all the lectures identified future collaborative research directions, planning for student and staff exchange and possibility of funded research activities. These will be positive outcomes and already the school enjoys strong links with Brazilian Researchers.

Josette, Phil and Flavia visit to Angelus was also a great success and they visited the factory as well as discussing plans for further interactions with industry. There was also a meet ing with Professors from Bauru Dental School (USP) at Angelus showing the strong links Angelus has with academia. Bauru dental school are also sending a student to Birmingham next October following a successful FAPESP scholarship.

This major visit of the school of dentistry was a huge success and the UoB party also took the opportunity to sample Sunday life on Avenida Paulista, Brazilian food and sights as the pictures show.

There was also the chance to see wildlife roaming around the São Paulo river such as Capybara which I have only seen in zoos before.

Profs Tony Smith and Paul Cooper are visiting Professors at Trinity College Dublin and gave presentations to staff and students at the School of Dental Science, Dublin Dental University Hospital, yesterday (23^rd May) lunchtime.

Prof Smith’s presentation was entitled: “REGENERATIVE ENDODONTICS , – where should the focus be ? – what outcomes do we want ?”

Prof Cooper’s presentation was entitled: ”HEALING & INFLAMMATION IN THE DENTINE-PULP COMPLEX”.

In the afternoon, Profs Smith & Cooper listened to presentations from Dr Hal Duncan’s PhD students and post-doctoral researchers as part of ongoing collaborations between the School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham and the School of Dental Sciences at Trinity College Dublin.

Collaborations with Drs Hal Duncan & Garry Fleming is well established and has been ongoing for the last 8-years.  This is one of many international collaborations that the School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham has in place.  Our international network serves to increase the reputation of our School.

Portable PHOTOtherapy devices for maintaining tissue viability and accelerated wound REPair (PHOTOREP)

A £100k grant has been secured for a translational research project to develop novel devices for the Ministry of Defence to prevent or reduce bacterial colonisation of injuries sustained in military combat, improve maintenance of vital tissue and accelerate tissue regeneration.

An interdisciplinary team was assembled and made up of physical, biological, military and clinical scientists with previous experience in technological development for the military field and consists of the following individuals:

• Prof Will Palin
• Dr Mo Hadis
• Prof Paul Cooper
• Dr Mike Milward
• Dr Dick Shelton
• Dr Sarah A Kuehne
• Dr Beryl Oppenheim (UHBT)
• Colonel Steven Jeffrey (UHBT/Military)

Congratulations to the team and we look forward with interest to the results that arise from this research.

The School of Dentistry has been sponsored on several research projects by Unilever India. With the influx of researchers who are visiting from all over the world for the IADR conference in London, it was possible to invite Sajitha Unnikrishnan, Asst. Manager, Global Claims, Oral Care, Unilever India to visit the School and review the research facilities. Here we see Sajitha Unnikrishnan with Damien Walmsley, Nina Vyas, and Rachel Sammons. The University of Birmingham campus provides a backdrop for the picture taken on the 3rd Floor of the building. Sarah Keuhne a member of the research team is at another conference before heading off to IADR herself.

The School of Dentistry hosted a workshop on Opportunities and Building Collaborative Connections with Brazilian Industry & Academia in Dental Research.  This visit was organised by Josette Camilleri form the School of Dentistry and was a suitable curtain raiser for the IADR conference which takes place later in the week.  This workshop is a follow on from a visit in March by Birmingham Academics lecturing to 3 dental schools in São Paulo (Unicamp, USP and UNESP).

The Brazilian delegation included Prof Brenda Gomes (UNICAMP – Brazil), Prof Marina Marciano (UNICAMP – Brazil), Prof Flares Baratto Filho (Curitiba- Brazil) and Dr Roberto Alcantara (Angelus – Brazil).

The guests were greeted by Prof Iain Chapple the Head of School who provided an overview of the School history and its future research aspirations.  This was followed by Damien Walmsley who gave an overview of the College and University research structure.  There were then presentations by Marco Dias da Silva on “The experience of a Brazilian academic working in Birmingham” and Richard Brunt and Flavia Pires Rodrigues on the Internationalization agenda. This was followed by a tour of the school and the research laboratories.

The delegates then transferred to staff house to a meal hosted by Robin Mason ProVice Chancellor for Internationalisation.  He emphasised that the dentistry links to Brazil are the University’s strongest and longest.  He is keen to see them do well.  Anne Simper from the Business engagement team was present.

In the afternoon Prof Paul Cooper introduced the symposium which included.

The new Angelus Bioceramic product line
Dr Roberto Alcantara – CEO Angelus-Prima

Biomaterials Unit Research at the School of Dentistry
Dr Richard Shelton – University of Birmingham

Panorama of the research developed on endodontic microbiology and its related clinical aspects by the Piracicaba Dental School
Prof Brenda Gomes – UNICAMP, Brazil

Stimulation and therapeutic application of dental pulp stem cells
Dr Ben Scheven – University of Birmingham

Causative factors and mitigation of dental discoloration
Prof Marina Marciano de Silva – UNICAMP, Brazil

Exploiting bioactive dentine matrix components in the treatment of apical periodontitis
Mr David Green – University of Birmingham

The day was a great success and everyone departed ready for the IADR meeting taking place in London.

Prof Chapple was in London to receive his prestigious award to recognise his outstanding research in periodontal disease. He received the award at the opening ceremony of the IADR conference. Here are some of the pictures taken by friends and colleagues of Iain receiving his award from Prof Angus Walls, President of the IADR. It is the first time in 13 years that a UK scientist has won the award, with only three UK-based scientists ever previously having won the awards

More details about the award and an interview with Prof Chapple may be found on The University of Birmingham News Web page

Would you be able to talk for 3 minutes on your 3 years work for your PhD thesis.  Well that is exactly what Hannah Serrage did at the recent IADR in London.  Hannah entered the IADR 3MT thesis prize ( 1 slide 3 minutes to present her research project).  Hannah won the competition against strong international competition.  Congratulations Hannah.  Also a mention to your supervisors Dr Mike Milward, Prof Paul Cooper andProf Will Palin,  Hannah also received support from Dr Mo Hadis.

The School of Dentistry took part in a Public engagement display called Research at the Heart of Brum.  The exhibition took place on a busy Saturday in October.  It was centrally placed under the departure boards in Grand Central.   There were researchers from across the campus who were engaging with the public about their research.  Dr Mel Grant who is the lead for “Open Wide” organised the dentistry stands and these included  “Blast a Biofilm”  using water pistols.  Others were curing a white filling in a phantom head and make your own biofilm using different materials that looked like your regular bacteria.  There were presentations not only from dentistry but across the University of Birmingham.  Many members of the public took part in the activities and some of our dental students were on hand to help out as well.  It was a lot of fun as the pictures show.

The Open Wide project at the Birmingham Dental Hospital and School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham is an exhibition space featuring the research and work of the staff and students. The current exhibition called Dancing Bubbles brings together scientists and artists from the University of Birmingham to enter the world of cavitation bubbles. It is based on EPSRC funded research in Professor Walmsley’s group (EP/P015743/1).

Cavitation bubbles are microbubbles which rapidly grow and collapse. When they collapse, they release forces which can clean plaque from teeth. Thousands of bubbles act as tiny scrubbers across the surface. Postdoctoral researcher Nina Vyas has created video art from high speed images of cavitation bubbles taken during research in the laboratory.

An art-science workshop was also held in conjunction with the exhibition called The Sound of Dancing Bubbles, led by sound artist and composer Emma Margetson and researcher Dr Nina Vyas. Two workshops were held for children aged 4-8 and 8-12. Here we unveiled our new outreach activities using sounds from the research to create bubble art. The first part of the workshop involved the Blast a Biofilm game, to explain the importance of dental hygiene to children and to explain how bubbles could clean teeth. In the second part, children used an underwater microphone called a hydrophone to make their own bubble sounds and learned how ultrasound can make cavitation bubbles.

They also listened to the sound of the cavitation bubbles produced around a dental ultrasonic scaler, and learned through popping bubble wrap that cavitation bubbles also pop and this is when they can clean. Finally, they listened to various compositions of cavitation sounds and created bubble art based on what they could hear.
‘I learned that germs grow on your teeth and you need to brush them. Bubbles can clean your teeth in the future’ – Children from the 8-12 age group workshop
‘I learnt plaque sticks germs to your teeth and bubbles move plaque’ – Children from the 4-8 age group
Click here to find out more about the Dancing Bubbles exhibition: https://bdhopenwide.com/dancing-bubbles/

Photos by Candy Salomon-Ibarra

PERCAT stands for Postdoctoral / Early Researcher Career Development And Training (PERCAT) and there was a strong turnout at the PERCAT Research Gala held in conjunction with the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and  Technology,  Wuhan, China. The presentations were of a high standard reflecting the cutting edge scientific research in the MDS College.

It was particularly pleasing to see Nina Vyas being awarded the MDS PERCAT excellence in public engagement award and also the Best oral presentation prize at the PERCAT Research Gala

Prof Roy Bicknell said that Nina had been the first researcher to win two prizes at a PERCAT research gala. Many congratulations to Nina who is a post doctoral researcher funded by the EPSRC and working on the grant “Maximising Cavitation to clean Dental Implants”