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BCD faculty, resident receive funding
Editor's Note: Grants are published once official notification is received by Baylor College of Dentistry's Office of Research and Advanced Education.
 Dr. Phillip R. Kramer,
assistant professor of biomedical sciences, was awarded $50,000 from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging. The grant funds Kramer's research titled "Estrogenic LXR Alpha
Response/Cholesterol Homeostasis."
An experimental finding while screening estrogen regulation of immune cell function piqued Kramer's interest in the subject. Through his research, Kramer hopes to understand
the mechanism of how estrogen regulates the immune cells' uptake of cholesterol. This understanding will provide pharmaceutical targets for atherosclerosis treatment.
"The outcome of finding pharmaceuticals will be treatment of arterial and heart disease that leads to heart attacks and stroke," Kramer said.
Kramer presented preliminary findings titled "Estrogen Regulates Gene Expression in Macrophages Through Estrogen Receptor b" to the Endocrine Society in 2001. Future
data will be published in scientific journals.
 Dr. Torsten Steinig,
graduate endodontics resident, received $5,173 from the American Association of Endodontics for "Quantitative Assessment of Pain After Non-surgical Endodontic Procedures in Individuals Living
with HIV/AIDS vs. Individuals Not Infected with HIV."
Steinig is looking at the effects that an infection with HIV has on the peripheral nervous system from a clinical relevance point of view. "Later stages of HIV disease often
shows signs of peripheral neuropathies or even dementia," Steinig said. "We're trying to find out if earlier changes in the PNS are clinically detectable. If a difference is found
between healthy subjects and those with HIV, further research may look at what accounts for the differences such as different drug regimes after endodontic treatment procedures."
Steinig's finding will be reported in endodontic and/or dental journals in either the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia.
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