The Colgate CARE Program is designed to foster and provide financial support to young dental academic researchers.

Colgate has announced this year’s recipients of the Colgate Award for Research Excellence (CARE). The CARE Program recognizes a new generation of academic researchers by providing up to $30,000 USD (per project) to support oral health research projects across multiple disciplines. 

The Colgate CARE Program is designed to foster and provide financial support to young dental academic researchers. In order to be eligible for the Colgate CARE grant, faculty applicants must be in the first 5 years of an academic appointment.

The five junior faculty members chosen to receive this year’s awards are Adriana Manso, DDS, MSc, PhD, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Dentistry: “Novel multifunctional curcumin-based adhesive varnish for caries control”; Ammaar Abidi, DDS, PhD, University of Tennessee, Health Science Center, College of Dentistry: “Evaluation of the Effects of Phytocannabinoids on Human Gingival Fibroblast Proliferation, Migration, Growth and Inflammatory Cytokine Production”; Bianca Dearing, DDS, MPhil, PhD, Meharry Medical College, School of Dentistry: “The Nashville KROHL Study: Oral Health Literacy in Underserved Mothers”; Yuan Liu, DDS, MS, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Dental Medicine: “Oral Candida infection in Infancy and Early Childhood Caries”; Zaher Jabbour, DMD, MSc, PhD, University of California at Los Angeles, School of Dentistry: “Does therapeutic silver remain in carious lesions treated with silver diamine fluoride and potassium iodide? And does it affect the bonding strength of restorative materials?”

Proposals were reviewed by an independent group of senior academic dental researchers. Winners were selected based on program criteria, which included innovation, clinical significance, originality, and scientific quality. CARE grants are typically offered for periods of 12 months.

“The CARE Program fosters the development of junior faculty by providing seed research funding to emerging leaders in academia at a time in their career path when it is most needed,” said Maria Ryan, vice president and chief dental officer, global technology at Colgate. “Every year, we look forward to meeting and supporting talented researchers in the early stages of their careers. We are pleased to fund innovative projects that promise to advance industry knowledge and perhaps even revolutionize the field of dentistry. On behalf of Colgate, sincere congratulations to the winners of this year’s grant awards.”