The Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (FNIDCR) online newsletter is a membership benefit. Permission is granted to repost this publication only with inclusion of the header. Past issues are posted at http://www.fnidcr.org/newsletters/index.html.

New Board Members Cover Oral Health
President Bruce Donoff welcomed the board’s newest members at the FNIDCR Annual Meting, held this month at the Miami Convention Center. “We’re honored, not only to have such qualified people added to the Board, but they represent academia, research, patient advocacy and corporations, a good complement to the rest of our board,” said Donoff.

Rena N. D'Souza, DDS, MS, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Biomedical Sciences,
Baylor College of Dentistry
Dallas, Texas

Debbie Oliver
Executive Director
AmeriFace
Las Vegas, NV

J. Leslie Winston, DDS, PhD
Director Professional & Scientific Relations, North America
The Procter & Gamble Company
Mason, Ohio

Economic Stimulus Update

9,000+ Reviewers Waiting for Application Onslaught
“The Stimulus funds (ARRA) have provided a tremendous opportunity for research,” says Dr. Larry Tabak, Acting Deputy Director of NIH and Director of NIDCR, “but the applications will need to be reviewed quickly to allow time for implementation in a two-year timeframe.” In the short time since NIH has received news of the funding, it has coordinated a team of over 9,000 people to review applications, which are expected to be in excess of 10,000!

Additional Funding Opportunities
NIH has announced several additional funding opportunities that will be supported with funds made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA):

Grand Opportunities ("GO") Grants:
NIH has established a new program, Research and Research Infrastructure "Grand Opportunities" (known as the "GO" program), to support projects that address large, specific biomedical and bio-behavioral research endeavors that will benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds. The research should have high, short-term impact, and a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development, public health and health care delivery. Applications are due May 27, 2009. See NIDCR's areas of scientific priority for the "GO" initiative.

Administrative Supplements:
NIH recently announced that Recovery Act funds for administrative supplements will be made available to investigators and U.S. institutions/organizations with active NIH research grants for the purpose of accelerating the tempo of scientific research on active grants. Applications are due June 1, 2009. See NIDCR Guidelines for Administrative Supplements.

For more on ARRA funding details visit:

• NIH website
• NIDCR's ARRA website
• Q&A about applying for ARRA funding

FNIDCR Patient Advocate Members
Come to Washington
We wish to thank our patient advocacy group members who participated in a series of events at NIH and in Washington, DC that focused on the importance of the work performed at NIDCR. This included participation in an Advocacy Day Workshop where public policy and legislative priorities were detailed, followed by meetings with legislators and their staffs on Capitol Hill. The third day included a forum at NIDCR where they were updated on the latest NIDCR intramural research.

Legislative Update

NIH & NIDCR FY10 Funding:
Sustainable Increases Sought
It is anticipated that medical research will receive increases in President Obama’s FY10 budget outline, which will build on the $10 billion in stimulus aid (to be appropriated over FY09 – FY10), and FY09 appropriations increase. Currently, the budget is in Congress’s hands, and once a budget resolution is approved, the appropriations process will begin where FNIDCR will have the opportunity to voice its position on FY10 funding levels.

For FY10, we are recommending to fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at $33.3 billion and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at $442 million.

While the oral health community is grateful for the $10 billion in stimulus funding for NIH, it is temporary “off-budget” funding that will expire at the end of FY10.  Therefore, we aspire to secure a sustainable funding path that will build upon the foundation laid by the $10 billion stimulus aid by enacting a 10 percent increase for NIH and NIDCR.

Oral Health Caucus Grows to Largest Ever!

Visit our Web site to see if your U.S. representative is a member of the Caucus. If not, please ask him or her to join today!

Dentistry Absent from
Health Care Reform
Last month, President Obama took the first step toward reforming the American health care system by convening a White House summit that brought together many of the top stakeholders in the health care community. An excellent start, to be sure, but there was a conspicuous absence at the summit — out of the 80 organizations present, not one represented dentistry. An article in Roll Call Online by Dr. Charles N. Bertolami, Dean of the NYU College of Dentistry (FNIDCR member), notes the conspicuous absence of the oral health care community in the growing health care debate - and makes the strongest case to date for why any comprehensive reform of the U.S. health care system should provide universal coverage of, and access to, high-quality, cost-effective dental services for all Americans. Read the article.

Legislation of Note
We bring your attention to H.Con.Res.56, which is a resolution expressing support for Children’s Dental Health Month and honoring the memory of Deamonte Driver. The original sponsor is Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and the resolution has two co-sponsors, one of which is Oral Health Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID). The resolution has also been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). It is S.Con.Res.8 and it has four co-sponsors.

Mark Your Calendar for
Barmes Lecture with Dr. Julio Frenk
The 2009 David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture will occur on Tuesday, December 15th from 11:30am - 12:30pm in the Masur Auditorium of the NIH Clinical Center (Bldg. 10). The lecturer is Dr. Julio Frenk, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. More details coming soon.

NIDCR Research

Disparities: New Center for
Native Oral Health Research
Many fundamental aspects of American Indian and Native Alaskan health remain to be fully understood and systematically addressed. A new oral health disparities center hopes to make a difference at the University of Colorado at Denver (FNIDCR member). Learn more.

More Research:

• Gene Change & Aggressive Periodontitis in African Americans
• Researchers Discover Why Teeth Form in a Single Row
• Likely Early Biomarker for LAP Identified