Alexandria, Va., USA – The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) will present Floyd Dewhirst with the 2014 IADR Distinguished Scientist Award in Research in Oral Biology. He will be recognized during the Opening Ceremonies of the 92nd IADR General Session & Exhibition, held in conjunction with the IADR Africa/Middle East Regional Meeting, June 25, 2014, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Dewhirst is a senior staff member of The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Department of Microbiology. He is also a professor in the Department of Oral and Developmental Biology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, and a D.D.S. from the University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Dewhirst’s research, which has produced more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, is focused on the identification of bacteria involved in oral disease. He and his colleagues use analysis of bacterial DNA to fingerprint more than 2,000 different bacterial species. This research is a critical step to determine which bacterial species are important in the etiology of periodontal and other oral diseases.
Currently, Dewhirst’s studies on the use of 16S rRNA for analysis of uncultivable bacterial species and his direction of the P. gingivalis Genome Project are helping to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis of adult forms of periodontal diseases. In addition, the Dewhirst laboratory is characterizing cultivable and currently uncultivated microorganisms in the human oral cavity; information from these studies will be used to develop an integrated view of host-microbiome interactions in health and disease.
Sponsored by Church & Dwight Company, the Research in Oral Biology Award is one of the 16 IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards and is one of the highest honors bestowed by IADR. The award consists of a monetary prize and plaque and recognizes outstanding research in the field of oral biology.
About the International Association for Dental Research
The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with nearly 11,500 individual members worldwide, dedicated to: (1) advancing research and increasing knowledge for the improvement of oral health worldwide; (2) supporting and representing the oral health research community, and (3) facilitating the communication and application of research findings. To learn more about IADR, visit www.iadr.org.
