Image Ann Arbor, Mich., June 9, 2026 – The University of Michigan School of Dentistry last week celebrated 50 years of hosting a program that provides interdisciplinary research-intensive training for advanced degree candidates pursuing research careers in the oral sciences.The Tissue Engineering and Regeneration Training Grant is supported by the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant has financial, administrative and faculty support from three U-M units – the School of Dentistry, the College of Engineering and the Medical School. The grant is most commonly referred to as TEAM, short for Tissue Engineering At Michigan.As part of NIH’s T32 grant program, which is designed to help develop research leaders, TEAM is NIDCR’s longest continuously-funded T32 in the country. That also makes it the longest-standing T32 at U-M, one of the leading research universities in the country with a long history of world-class research across all three of its campuses. Image TEAM director David Kohn explains the program history. At a symposium on June 5 that celebrated the program’s accomplishments, director David Kohn cited its continuing success in preparing students and post-docs for research-based careers with multiple outcomes – from academic research and teaching, to industry, government, technology transfer and clinical research. Kohn, who has been associated with the program for 25 years and director since 2011, is the Natalie C. Roberts Endowed Professor of Dentistry, a professor in the dental school’s Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences & Prosthodontics, and a professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering. Over the five decades of the program, he said, many of the program participants have gone on to be prominent leaders in research and higher education.Each year, up to 10 researchers are competitively chosen for the program and stay in it from two to four years, depending on the requirements of their degree program. The three types of trainees supported by the grant are:• A traditional PhD in the School of Dentistry’s Oral Health Sciences, the College of Engineering’s Biomedical Engineering or the Medical School’s Program in Biomedical Sciences.• A joint DDS/PhD through the School of Dentistry or an MD/PhD through the Medical School.• A Post-Doctoral Fellow Program.The primary objective of the program is to provide an interdisciplinary research environment for individuals who wish to pursue a career in the oral health sciences with a focus on the regeneration of oral-craniofacial tissues. The program’s stated goal is “to provide the necessary background course work, research training, and intellectual interplay with the various academic disciplines that intersect in the biomaterials field to provide training for the next generation of leaders in this area, with a focus in oral-craniofacial related biomaterials/bioengineering.”Applicants are nominated by their research mentors. Researchers and clinicians from dentistry, engineering and medicine serve as participants and mentors. Trainees are required to complete Core Training Requirements, which include a course in tissue engineering, a monthly meeting where they present updates on their research, a tissue engineering and regeneration seminar series, and a biennial retreat. Image Guest speaker Genny Romanowicz, who was a TEAM trainee and earned her PhD from the U-M School of Dentistry in 2021, describes findings of her current research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon. In his symposium overview, Kohn noted that the first 20 years of the training grant focused on dental materials, but the emphasis changed 30 years ago when tissue engineering emerged as a strong new field. TEAM researchers today investigate a wide array of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies for restoration of oral-craniofacial tissues lost to caries, periodontal disease, trauma, congenital abnormalities or cancer. Thematic areas include biological interactive materials for regenerative medicine and drug delivery; immune engineering; developmental and stem cell biology; oral cancer and head-and-neck cancer; and translational/clinical research.The T32 grants are considered “institutional” by NIH, rather than as grants to individuals. A major strength of the program, Kohn said, is that it resides at U-M, where numerous schools and colleges are highly ranked, which means world-class research programs and researchers are close by on campus. The university-wide commitment to interdisciplinary access, paired with the generosity of time and mentoring from faculty of many different disciplines, is of great value to trainees, he said.“TEAM is a long-standing synergy between dentistry, medicine and engineering,” Kohn said. “It capitalizes on us having three top-10 units on the same campus, which is a rarity. It is one of the reasons that I think TEAM has been so successful and longstanding. The real objective is to cultivate an interdisciplinary research ecosystem and use it to enable trainees to become self-standing researchers that have some footprint in the oral health space and the mission of the NIDCR.” Image Ann Decker, a U-M dental school faculty member and former TEAM trainee who received her PhD in Oral Health Science at the school in 2019, presented a summary of her current research into bone generation and periodontal disease. She said it is possible because of collaboration, mentoring and support she received from faculty and research colleagues throughout her academic and early-career journey so far. The symposium opened with a virtual presentation by Dr. Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque, acting director of the NIDCR, headquartered on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. She congratulated the program on its longstanding success and provided an overview of the research and funding opportunities at the institute. In doing so, she touched on the wide variety of cutting-edge research that has opened the world’s understanding of, and treatments for, many types of oral health conditions and diseases. She noted that NIDCR stands ready to continue helping researchers and research programs like TEAM make incredibly important discoveries that improve the health of Americans. “We’ve got a lot more work to do,” she said.In his welcome remarks, School of Dentistry Dean Jacques Nör, who has shepherded his own research program for three decades, called the TEAM anniversary an extraordinary milestone. “We celebrate you – the people, the partnerships, the discoveries – that have defined this program over five decades,” he said. “This program has fostered generations of clinician-scientists, researchers and innovators who have advanced the development of strategies for tissue-regeneration to improve the health of patients. This anniversary also highlights something that has become a hallmark of the University of Michigan – the power of collaboration and working together. The success of the T-32 reflects a strong partnership between the School of Dentistry, the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine. Together the schools have created an environment where disciplinary boundaries have disappeared, new ideas have emerged, and transformative discoveries become possible.”The symposium featured speakers who came through the TEAM program over the years. They related the importance of how TEAM contributed to their careers and they discussed their current positions and research. Some speakers are now clinician-scientists and dental school faculty who are mentoring researchers just as they were mentored. Some hold faculty positions in engineering and medical schools, and others are non-academics working in business development, technology transfer and government positions.In closing the symposium, Kohn explained that this summer will be the start of the 50th year of the program. This fall the TEAM administrative team will apply for a multi-year continuation of the program. In tandem with the effort to continue the grant, Kohn announced the beginning of a transition process in leadership of the program. He and dental school faculty member Isabelle Lombaert will share principal investigator duties during a transitional time after the grant continuation. Lombaert is the William E. Kotowicz Collegiate Professor in Dentistry within the Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences & Prosthodontics. Image Administrators of TEAM, along with symposium speakers and attendees, pose at the end of the symposium at the U-M Biomedical Science Research Building. ###The University of Michigan School of Dentistry is one of the nation’s leading dental schools engaged in oral healthcare education, research, patient care and community service. General dental care clinics and specialty clinics providing advanced treatment enable the school to offer dental services and programs to patients throughout Michigan. Classroom and clinic instruction prepare future dentists, dental specialists and dental hygienists for practice in private offices, hospitals, academia and public agencies. Research seeks to discover and apply new knowledge that can help patients worldwide. For more information about the School of Dentistry, visit us on the Web at: www.dent.umich.edu. Email: [email protected], or (734) 615-1971.
Feb 20, 2026 Annual Research Day at School of Dentistry Showcases Wide-ranging Scientific Advances Related to Oral Health
