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The School of Dentistry celebrated its 42nd Annual Research and Clinical Symposium this February in the Holly Auditorium and Foyer. This year’s symposium welcomed full attendance for the more than 35 oral and poster research presentations by pre-doctoral, doctoral and post-doctoral students, residents, dental and dental hygiene students, and dental faculty.

The symposium opened with remarks from , professor and dean of the School of Dentistry. Esteemed keynote speaker Vasan S. Ramachandran, MD, FACC, FAHA, dean of the School of Public Health, presented “Complex Adaptive Networks in Health, Disease and Society: Implications for Clinical Research.” The newly established School of Public Health is a collaboration of �������� of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (��������) and . 

Participants took the stage to give their oral presentations followed by poster presentations in the foyer. By 3 p.m., Dean Loomer welcomed everyone back to the auditorium to introduce the distinguished guest speaker, Sriram Ravindran, PhD, an associate professor of oral biology at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry. Ravindran presented “Dental Extracellular Vesicles in Regenerative Medicine.” Afterwards, Dean Loomer and , associate dean for research, greeted the winners on stage and distributed the award certificates.

2024 School of Dentistry Research and Clinical Symposium Awardees

Oral Presentations
1st Place

Dental Student: Sydney Dayoung Chung, “Third Year Oral Surgery Rotation Improves Clinical Confidence and Stress.”

Post-doctoral: John Lorenz Shannonhouse, “Twik1, potassium ion channel, is essential to maintaining sensitivity to mechanical, thermal, and cold stimuli following nerve injury condition.”

Poster Presentations
1st Place

Dental Student: Meilinn Tram, “SARS-Cov-2 Spike Protein Sensitizes Nociceptors and Evokes Nociceptive Behaviors.”

Dental Resident: Shilpa Ganatra, “Exploring Stem Cells for Management of Post-Operative Endodontic Pain.”

Post-doctoral: Yan Zhang, “Unraveling itch and pain sensations by in vivo voltage imaging.”

PhD: Stephen Frank Hernandez, “Prolactin is a Mediator of Sexual Dimorphism in Apical Periodontitis.”