Basic Sciences

Louis Mansky, PhD, professor of basic sciences and director of the Institute for Molecular Virology, received an NIH R21 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for his work on cryo-CLEM imaging of HTLV-1, along with Wei Zhang, PhD, research professor of basic sciences, and Joachim Mueller, professor of physics. 

The grant seeks to “reduce the need for lengthy and costly clinical studies, thus reducing the developmental costs and accelerating the translation of dental restorative materials from the benchtop to the chairside,” Fok explained.

Specifically, Wang plans to examine Epstein-Barr Virus nuclear antigen leader protein, or EBNALP, “an EBV-encoded gene essential for EBV to transform naive B cells into proliferating lymphoblastoid cell lines.”

Kim Mansky, PhD, received a $650,760 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to implement the Minnesota Craniofacial and Oral Health Research Experience (MnCORE).

Kim Mansky, PhD, and Amy Tasca, DDS, PhD, are no strangers to working together. In fact, the director of the Minnesota Craniofacial Research Training Program served as the primary advisor to Tasca, holder of the Robert J Isaacson Chair of Orthodontics, during Tasca’s graduate studies. They haven’t stopped working together since.