Biotech & Materials Research to Reduce Caries Disparity

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a revision of Grant application No. R13DE015798-01 for a scientific workshop with the aim to: (1) Produce a state-of-the-art assessment of the public health approaches and their limitations in preventing early childhood dental caries in disparity populations. Important in this assessment will be differentiating applied problems of engineering and technology versus fundamental science. (2) Assess recent emerging research in the prevention of dental caries including: specific species bacterial adhesion prevention, biofilm ecology manipulation, circumvention of sucrose driven acid production, genetically engineered antibiotic production in situ, and fluoride- and other antimicrobial-release coatings. (3) Promote a dialogue between end-users, oral microbiologists, and materials and bioengineering experts in order to develop novel prevention technologies and implement the transfer of such technologies to industry and practice. (4) Address the question of what can be done to more effectively use the large body of basic and applied caries science already available to speed solutions to the public health community. (5) Develop a research agenda that will help state, federal, and private funding agencies identify critical research needs; not only for novel technological solutions but also on outreach mechanisms to transfer such novel technologies to industry and public health practice. The rationale for the workshop is that science and technology have not produced sufficient practical tools for public health practitioners and the private delivery system to address the plaque of dental caries that exists for children and adults from families with low incomes and for numerous ethnic minority and racial groups. The 2 1/2 day conference is to be held Winter 2005 in Seattle and involve participants from basic and applied academic dental research, bioengineering and biotechnology, government, and industry. The conference will be co-sponsored by the Northwest/Alaska Center to Reduce Oral Health Disparities, the University of Washington UWeb Bioengineering Center, and the Salivary Diagnostics Project.