14 February 2025

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Soon, Elmorr each take first place at Research Day 2025

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Lay Soon and Elissa Elmorr each took first place in the Graduate Trainee and Dental Predoctoral Oral Presentation competitions respectively at the 2025 School of Dentistry Research Day on Wednesday.

Held annually, Research Day is the celebration of the culmination of research projects from predoctoral dental students, many of whom participate in the year-long Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) program, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, residents, faculty and staff from the School of Dentistry.

Soon is a second-year PhD student who works in the McLean lab as a research assistant. Her winning presentation was on her study titled, “Progress on Experimental Gingivitis Clinical Trial Investigating Inflammatory Responder Types”.

Elmorr is a second-year predoctoral student whose winning presentation was titled, “Change in Plaque Microbial Composition in an Intervention to Reduce Sugar-Sweetened Fruit Drinks in Alaska Native Children”. Elmorr will go on to be the School’s representative at the 2026 AADOCR Dentsply/Sirona SCADA Competition. 

The theme of Research Day this year was, “Sleep apnea: basic science, clinical, and public health approaches”. The Keynote Speaker was Dr. Maida L. Chen, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Chen gave her speech titled, “Obstructive sleep apnea: what every dentist needs to know”, where she detailed the pathophysiology, epidemiology and diagnostic evaluation for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in both children and adults. She also discussed the sequelae of untreated OSA and collated evidence-based guidelines on when dentists should refer to sleep medicine specialists.

Other faculty members who presented included Dr. Horacio de la Iglesia of the Department of Biology, Dr. Zi-Jun Liu of the Department of Orthodontics and Dr. Edward M. Weaver of the Department of Otolaryngology.

Fourth-year student Delbert Oxborrow took second place in the predoctoral student competition for his project, “Free Dental Clinic Program Analysis: Union Gospel Mission”; second-year student Kristi Trinh took third for her project, “Mechanoreceptor Development in the Periodontal Ligament from Eruption to Occlusion.

Second-year student Shaili Rathod was honored with the Research Advisory Committee Travel Award for her project, “A Memory Restructuring Intervention to Prevent Dental Fear: Parent Perspectives.”

Fourth-year student Rebecca Lee was honored with the 2025 Jack Nicholls Award for her project, “Exploring the Relationship Between Temporomandibular Disorders and Gonial Angle”. 

The award ceremony and presentations were followed with the poster session for students and faculty to view and discuss the work of their peers amongst one another, catered with food and beverage refreshments.

The Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) Dental Honor Society provided cash prizes for the winners of the Dental Student Research Competition. OKU and the Seattle Section of the American Association for Dental and Craniofacial Research were sponsors of Research Day, and the School of Dentistry thanks them for their support.

Source: https://dental.washington.edu/