Dear Colleagues:
As part of the budget planning process for Fiscal Year 2013, the NIDCR is identifying topical themes for development into research initiatives. During this process, we welcome input from our scientific advisory boards, the extramural community, interested organizations, and the public at large.
What are Initiatives?
Initiatives are a vehicle used by the Institutes and Centers to showcase future research goals to NIH, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Congress. The NIDCR begins the initiative development process each year by identifying broad research topic areas, or themes. We then develop a specific initiative proposal for each theme, taking into consideration the input received. The themes we have identified for FY 2013 are listed below.
It is important to remember that initiatives are not a complete picture of the Institute’s planned portfolio of supported work for the year indicated, nor do they signal that themes highlighted the previous year have been abandoned. Several FY 2012 initiatives have become formal funding initiatives and are posted on the NIDCR website; others are still under development. Proposed FY 2013 initiatives will be integrated into this larger landscape as they are considered for funding. When identifying themes for consideration as funding initiatives, NIDCR considers many factors. These include scientific opportunity, alignment with the mission and goals of the Institute’s strategic plans, robustness of the existing portfolio in a particular theme area both currently and in the year under consideration, and current budgetary climate.
How can you provide input?
Please send your comments and suggestions related to these specific theme areas directly to us at FY2013Comments@nidcr.nih.gov . If you want to suggest additional topic areas, or comment on the process for developing research initiatives, please send those suggestions to the same email address. Please submit all comments no later than Friday August 26, 2011.
Thank you for your interest and input. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Isabel Garcia, D.D.S., M.P.H.
Acting Director
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
Proposed NIDCR FY 2013 Research Themes
Leveraging FaceBase to Accelerate Understanding of Craniofacial Development, Disorders, and Conditions
The initiative encourages the craniofacial research community to leverage the FaceBase Consortium databases and other resources with the goal of accelerating research on the genetics of craniofacial development and diseases/disorders. The aim is to alert researchers to the availability of consortium datasets and thereby (a) generate further analyses and integration of these data and (b) generate novel hypotheses and potential high-quality research applications.
Background: In 2009, NIDCR launched the FaceBase Consortium to advance our understanding of normal craniofacial development and the genetic and environmental perturbations that lead to diseases and disorders. Currently, the consortium consists of ten interlinked research and technology projects with a focus on the middle region of the face, including the nose, upper lip, and the palate. These projects have produced large datasets that interested members of the craniofacial research community can analyze further via the FaceBase Hub web site [https://www.facebase.org/]. The web site is free and publicly accessible to the scientific community.
Development of Imaging Diagnosis of Dental Diseases and Conditions
The initiative aims to accelerate the development and implementation of state-of-the-art diagnostic instruments to detect problems of the mouth’s hard tissues. These include dental caries, cracked teeth, periodontal disease, and the assessment of pulp vitality. The initiative could lead to more technologically sophisticated approaches to diagnose, manage, and prevent dental diseases. Novel approaches are encouraged. However, the resulting instrumentation must demonstrate superior specificity and sensitivity than current diagnostic methods without increasing health risks for patients.
Background: Dental caries remains the most common chronic disease of childhood in the United States. In addition, recurrent caries and root caries are prevalent among adults and the elderly. During the last decade, NIDCR-supported researchers have attempted to develop more accurate and reproducible methods to diagnose dental caries and determine whether incipient lesions will resolve or progress to advanced disease. The technical methods emerging from these efforts to determine early caries activity require expensive instrumentation, making them unaffordable for most, if not all, dental offices. Other recently commercialized caries detection instruments have limited capacity to detect caries on all tooth surfaces and typically are used as an adjunct measure to standard clinical diagnostic evaluation. Improved imaging technologies could provide health care providers with the tools to diagnose caries early and assist them in correctly determining whether or not to treat the problem.
For providers, cracked teeth remain one of their most frustrating diagnostic challenges. They have no reliable way to determine whether the crack will progress until the tooth actually fractures. An accurate three-dimensional representation of cracked teeth is another area in need of improved diagnostic instrumentation. Ultimately, the system would predict which cracks will lead to a tooth fracture and which are unlikely to progress. Two additional clinical needs are (a) novel imaging technologies that can accurately measure subtle changes in periodontal attachment levels or alveolar bone integrity and (b) methods to measure pulp vitality. Both advances would markedly enhance evidence-based treatment decisions.