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Dr. Daniel Boyd, along with co-investigators Dr. Robert Abraham and Dr. Sharon Kehoe have been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Proof of Principle Grant for "Commercialization of a Radiopaque Spherical Embolic Agent."

The approximately $160,000 award will fund the final stages necessary for preparation of OccluRad for commercialization. OccluRad is a radiopaque biomaterial that may be injected into blood vessels in order to block blood flow to a target tissue (a process called embolization).

Embolization is used for therapies such as cutting off blood flow to a tumor or to stop uncontrolled bleeding. OccluRad has an advantage over existing embolization materials in that it is intrinsically radiopaque and therefore its placement can be monitored using conventional imaging techniques without the need for potentially harmful contrast dyes.

Dr. Boyd is also a member of a research team, led by Dr. Paul Hong of the Faculty of Medicine, awarded a HÂþ»­ University Department of Surgery Seed Grant for the project "The effect of strontium ranelate on bone consolidation during distraction osteogenesis of the rabbit mandible."

Drs. Daniel Boyd, Blaine Cleghorn, Mark Filiaggi and Bob Loney have been awarded a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation REDI Team Development Award for the project "Developing an Oral Health Clinical Research Enterprise in Nova Scotia."

Funding provided by this award will support a project coordinator to bring together a research team of materials scientists and dentists. Initially, the team will focus on developing a proposal to study new materials for dental fillings in children.

In the process, the coordinator will create clinical research procedures and work out the details of how to conduct research in the HÂþ»­ Dental Clinic without disturbing teaching and patient care.

This will smooth the way for further clinical research and build the knowledge, experience and confidence needed to proceed to more advanced clinical oral health research studies. The researchers see great potential for a thriving oral health clinical research enterprise centered around the HÂþ»­ Dental Clinics; eventually leading to new techniques, devices and materials that will improve the oral health of Nova Scotians.

Dr. Richard Price has been awarded a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation REDI Research Skills Training grant. This award will provide funds for Dr Price to attend an advanced training course on FT-IR spectrometry. The Price lab uses this technology to study hardening of dental resins with the ultimate goal of improving the life span of resin based dental fillings.

Dr. Price, along with co-investigators Dr. Sachin Seth and Dr. Daniel Labrie, has also been awarded a Faculty of Dentistry Research Fund award for "Automated 4-D Beam Profiling of Dental Curing Lights from 0 to 10mm Distance." The funds will be used to continue development of a device which can quickly measure the output and irradiance of dental curing lights in order to predict their ability to properly cure dental resins.

Dr. Mark Filiaggi is a member of a research team, led by Dr. Rob Adamson of the School of Biomedical Engineering, awarded a Capital Health Research Fund Award for the project "Development of an active implant to stimulate peri-implant bone formation and for in-vivi assessment of osseointegration."

This research will study the effect of inserting a device that applies vibration to the bone surrounding an orthopedic or dental implant. The researchers hope to find that the vibration improves osseointegration (strong adhesion between the implant and bone tissue).

Congratulations to all!