NIH awards $2 million grant to pharmacy, dental medicine

With the help of a recent $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), two colleges at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) are teaming up to stop the progression of periodontal disease.

Dr. Patrick M. Woster, SmartState® Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and professor and chair of the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences in the MUSC College of Pharmacy, and collaborating investigator Dr. Chad Novince of the Department of Oral Health in the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine at MUSC, were awarded the five-year grant.

The prestigious NIH R01 grant funds the study "Mechanistic probes to study the immune response in periodontal disease," which will provide a more robust understanding of periodontal disease progression, validate a potential drug target, and lead to the development of chemical probes with therapeutic potential for local immunomodulatory adjuvant treatment of PD.

“This research could lead to a breakthrough in periodontal disease therapy,” said Philip Hall, dean of the MUSC College of Pharmacy. “MUSC’s commitment to interprofessional collaboration enables us to combine the expertise of a medicinal chemist and an oral health scientist so that they can look for new solutions in different ways.”