Alexandria, VA – The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) has announced Stephanie Momeni as the 2024 recipient of the Procter & Gamble Underrepresented Faculty Research Fellowship. Momeni, from Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, was recognized during the Opening Ceremonies of the 102nd General Session of the International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR), which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the AADOCR and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024 in New Orleans, LA, USA.
Momeni is currently an Assistant Professor in the department of Oral Rehabilitation and Bio sciences at Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry. Her long-term research goal is to establish an independent research program at a research-intensive dental institution that will bridge the gap between epidemiological associations research and the basic science approaches needed to prove these associations for more comprehensive studies of early childhood caries.
Momeni’s career in oral microbiology is specifically focused on the role of oral bacteria in early childhood dental caries. Her oral microbiology research career began in 2000 in the laboratory of Paige Caufield and Yihong Li at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). In 2007, she joined the large-scale epidemiological study of early childhood caries with Noel Childers at UAB, which inspired her to pursue a Masters in Dentistry in 2010 followed by a PhD in 2016 as a Dental Academic Research Training (DART) pre-doctoral fellow. She joined the laboratory of Hui Wu in 2016 as a DART Postdoctoral Scholar. In 2020, she was selected to be a member of the first cohort of the AADOCR MIND the Future Program.
Momeni’s overall research goal is to perform oral microbiology research focused on biosynthetic gene clusters related bacterial metabolites to determine their role in the pathogenesis of early childhood caries and their impact on overall human health conditions such as infective endocarditis, stroke, and heart disease.
The goal of the AADOCR Procter & Gamble Underrepresented Faculty Research Fellowship is to support researchers from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups at the early stages of their scientific careers and to increase representation of these underrepresented groups at the faculty level in science and academia. The $10,000 Fellowship is supported by P&G Professional Oral Health, Crest + Oral-B.
About IADR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
About AADOCR
The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research to advance health and well-being. AADOCR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit and private-sector institutions who share our mission. AADOCR is the largest division of the International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research. Learn more at www.aadocr.org.