Buffalo Oral-Research and Specialty Training Program (BORST)

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT This is a renewal application for a K12 grant to continue support for the Buffalo Oral-Research and Specialty Training (BORST) Program, an integrated research training program based in the School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo (UB). The overarching objective of BORST is to foster the development of dental specialist-scientist scholars focused on oral, dental and craniofacial research. To accomplish this goal, BORST offers mentored, interdisciplinary research training opportunities in oral health, craniofacial biology and bioengineering. BORST provides a strong curriculum and thematic research experiences in an integrative framework that emphasizes mentoring, scientific advancement, academic career development, grantsmanship, and productivity. This K12 application requests support for dentists to engage in clinical specialty training and PhD research training for dentist-scientists in basic, translational or bioengineering sciences important to dental, oral or craniofacial health. BORST is an integral part of the School of Dental Medicine that engages faculty and trainees/scholars in other disciplines and departments in the School of Medicine and Bioengineering at UB. Mentoring and career development activities are thematically grouped into 5 strategic areas of research focus: (i) immunology and innate defenses, (ii) relationship of oral pathogens to systemic disease, (iii) saliva and salivary glands, (iv) microbial pathogenesis of oral organisms, and (v) bone and connective tissues/tissue engineering. BORST benefits from outstanding and time-tested administrative support systems and institutional commitment that will provide continued support to the Department of Oral Biology. The BORST Program will support two postdoctoral scholars each year of the award who will engage in this combined career development program. The goal for the BORST Program is to provide early career development for talented dentists who wish to pursue research and academic careers as dental specialists with a PhD. An integrated, multi-year evaluation plan will be used to measure the extent to which BORST goals and objectives are met. The resulting scholars will be well prepared to engage in meaningful basic and/or translational oral health research.