Alexandria, VA, USA – The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) has announced Livia Tenuta as the winner of the 2024 IADR E.W. Borrow Memorial Award. Tenuta, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was recognized during the Opening Ceremonies of the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA.
Tenuta earned her PhD at Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, Brazil, where she established technique-sensitive methodologies to measure fluoride, calcium, and phosphate in very small volumes (around 2-3 microliters), allowing the study of the dynamics of mineral ions between the solid and the fluid phase of biofilm. These methods were later employed by her in several studies and conducted by other students investigating fluoride bioavailability in biofilm fluid from food cooked with fluoridated water, the use of fluoride toothpastes/rinses, restorative materials, or professional fluorides.
Teuta’s work was awarded the IADR Basil Bibby Award for young researchers in Cariology in 2014. She co-authored two books and 38 book chapters and has 94 peer-reviewed papers published, approximately 70% of which are about fluoride. She played an integral role in establishing the rational use of fluoride in Brazil as co-author of the 2010 Brazilian Guidelines of Fluoride Use.
After working for 10 years as a professor of Biochemistry and Cariology at Piracicaba Dental School, Tenuta was recruited to the University of Michigan, in the Department of Cariology, Restorative Sciences and Endodontics in 2018. There she worked as one of the examiners in the NIH-funded clinical trial to make silver diamine fluoride an anticaries drug in the United States, which is expected to have a significant impact in caries management for young children in that country.
Sponsored by The Borrow Foundation, the IADR E.W. Borrow Memorial Award recognizes and stimulates research in oral health prevention for children, with a priority for caries prevention where fluoride in different formats is utilized. This is the 33rd year of the IADR E.W. Borrow Memorial Award, which consists of a plaque and a monetary award of $3,500.
About IADR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. Learn more at www.iadr.org.