Major grant award continues MDRCBB work for the future
The dental advancements of the future are being researched and tested right here on campus, at the Minnesota Dental Research Center for Biomaterials and Biomechanics (MDRCBB). The important work being done there recently received significant support in the form of a grant renewal—$1.8 million from med tech company Solventum.
In speaking about the Solventum grant, the center’s Director Alex Fok, PhD, MSC, said, “It’s been a fruitful collaboration for more than 30 years, beginning when the company was part of 3M. It’s been a unique partnership in which we provide clinically relevant lab tests as a screening process for new technologies or products in development. They bring us the problems – the design of clinically relevant lab tests – and we try to come up with solutions.” He emphasized that the center does not provide product endorsements, but instead works as a consultative, independent resource for companies. “We’re a very honest mirror,” he said.
The center, which was founded in 1992, is a multidisciplinary resource dedicated to advancing research and development in dental biomaterials, biomechanics and related technologies. Its mission is to bridge the gap between material science and clinical dentistry, enhancing patient care through rigorous testing of materials, 3D simulation and industrial collaboration. “We strive to be the leader in using clinically relevant tests and simulation to assess materials, and we see ourselves as an accelerator of the process to translate these ideas into products that will benefit patients,” Fok said. “Our focus at the center is on speed, effectiveness and safety.”
The center’s collaborative working style is made even more effective by the diversity of expertise in its leadership. Fok’s background is in mechanical engineering, Deputy Director and Associate Professor Hooi Pin Chew BDS, FDSRCS, PhD, brings clinical expertise, and Assistant Professor Jae Sung Lee, PhD, is a chemical engineer. “With our different backgrounds, we’re able to have more impact on research design, applicability of research and the understanding of how to bring products from benchtop to chairside,” Chew said.
The real-world nature of the center’s work has helped it achieve some major leaps in care. Chew pointed to recent work on a water-based varnish that could repair tooth decay in its early stages. “We did fundamental tests at the micron level, then ran clinically relevant experiments to see how the varnish would work in the real world,” she said. “The results were positive, and the product has been successfully commercialized. That’s exciting, because it’s a much less invasive and patient-friendly treatment that can stop early decay.”
All this work will have a positive impact on students who are studying to enter the field, Fok said. “They won’t have to wait five or 10 years to determine which products are most effective in clinical settings, because we’re doing the work to understand how one product is better than others, and thus why something succeeds or fails. We’re making strides in understanding the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of successful biomaterials, biomechanics and related technologies, so that we can help in the development of even more effective solutions someday.”