Recipient of Sunstar Innovation Grant Named

The American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) awarded the first Sunstar Innovation Grant to Yvonne Kapila, DDS, PhD. The $30,000 grant will support Kapila’s research on natural bacteriocins as pre/probiotics to promote oral health and prevent periodontal diseases. Kapila will investigate the use of pre/probiotics containing nisin, a food preservative, or nisin-secreting bacteria to promote a healthy oral microbiome and to prevent the formation of pathogenic biofilms associated with periodontal diseases. Kapila is a professor and vice chair of the Division of Periodontology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Dentistry and an AAP member. She was recruited to UCSF from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 2016. Kapila will present the results of her research at a future AAP meeting.

This grant is one of six that will be given over 3 years through a partnership between the AAP and Sunstar Americas Inc, an oral health and technology company. The purpose of the grant program is to support AAP members whose research endeavors show significant potential to advance the science and practice of periodontics. The AAP will begin accepting applications for the grants in the fall of 2017. AAP members who are actively conducting scientific research in a clinical setting are encouraged to submit research abstracts and proposals for consideration.

From Dimensions of Dental Hygiene. June 2017;15(6):13.