News
Suzanne Abreu awaded AAOF RAA grant!
Congratulation to lab member, Dr. Suzanne Abreu, who was recently awarded a Research Aid Award from the American Association of Orthodontists for her MS thesis research project, "The Influence of Population Variation and Obesity on Facial Growth" (PI: Abreu; Co-I's: Nicholas (mentor) & J Sciote)
Suzanne's project will build upon our NIJ grant dataset to include lateral ceph data so that we can look at facial growth as well as dental development. Congrats, Suzanne!
Picture: Suzanne (far left) being recognized for this achievement at the UIC Orthodontics Award Ceremony
Ilana Kramer (UIC Pediatric Dentistry, '23) and Kayla Yip (UIC Orthodontics, '23) win awards at UIC Clinic and Research Day!
Ilana Kramer (Ped Dent '23) won the 1st place Basic/Basic Translational Sciences Award (Resident) for her presentation of her MS thesis project: "Childhood obesity and oral health: Inflammatoin and dental maturation".
Kayla Yip (Ortho '23) won 1st place Population/Public Health Sciences Award (Resident) for her presentation fo her MS thesis project: "Childhood body mass index and dental crowding"
Congratulations!
Nicholas Lab and Collaborators Awarded NIJ Grant
Dr. Nicholas and her colleauges Dr. Michael Colvard (UIC), Dr. James Sciote (Temple U), Dr. Jeffrey Godel (Temple U), and Dr. Efthymia Nikita (Cyprus U) were recently awarded an Research and Development in Forensic Sciences for Criminal Justice Purposes grant for their project "DENTAGE: A multi-component subadult dental age estimation method"
Alyssa Ramos (UIC BS '22, GPPA) wins awards for Honor's Capstone research!
Alyssa Ramos, UIC undergraduate Honor's College student and participant in the prestigious Dentistry GPPA (graduate professional pre-admissions program), won awards for her presentation of her Honor's research project: "Metacarpal 1 Proximal Articular Surface Morphological Variation across Hominids". She presented at the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participant (ILSAMP) and UIC College of Dentistry's Clinic and Research Day. She was awarded:
-1st Place Oral Presentation (ILSAMP)
-1st Place Basic Science - Undergraduate (UIC C&R Day)
-Best Undergraduate, from the UIC COD Student Research Group (UIC C&R Day; an award voted on solely by dental student peers)
Congratulations, Alyssa! And a special mention to Cierra Sledge (D1) who assisted with an earlier phase of this project!
Dr. Nicholas wins university teaching award
Dr. Nicholas was selected for the prestigious, campus-wide 2021-2022 cohort of the Teaching Recognition Program award. This award is peer reviewed by faculty from across UIC, and includes an evaluation of the candidate's statement, student feedback, peer reviews, course materials, mentoring of students, curriculum development and implementation of impactful and innovative teaching approaches.
Dr. Catherine Chacin visits Nicholas Lab
Dr. Catherine Chacin (DMD, MPH; University of Puerto Rico) spent a week in the Nicholas Lab training on Geometric Morphometric data collection methods.
Dr. Chacin is working under PI Dr. Maribel Campos Rivera on a project looking at the interuterine effects of Zika virus on cranial and dental traits. She also gave a presentation to the Craniofacial Research Group regarding their preliminary data.
Pheba Abraham Awarded AAOF RAA!
Congratulations to lab member Pheba Abraham on being awarded a Research Aid Award from the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation!
Pheba's project investigates dental patients' experiences with food security and access to oral healthcare/orthodontics during the COVID-19 pandemic. (March, 2021)
Nicholas Lab + Collaborators Awarded CCTS Grant
This grant, entitled "The Effects of Food Insecurity on the Oral Microbiomes of Children in Chicago ", will fund research on oral health as it relates to disparities in access to adequate and healthful nutrition and will form the basis of Pamela Whym's PhD thesis. Our collaborators include: Dr. Afsar Naqvi (Periodontics), Dr. Sloan Williams (Anthropology), Dr. Giamila Fantuzzi (Kinesiolgy and Nutrition), Dr. Sahar Alrayyes (Pediatric Dentistry), and Dr. Ghadeer Thalji (Restorative Dentistry). (Oct. 2019)
2019 Nicholas Lab Lunch
Another fun year of our annual tradition of gathering for lunch to reflect on a great year of work in the lab!
44th Annual International Conference on Craniofacial Research ("Moyers Pre-Symposium")
Dr. Nicholas was an invited speaker at the 2019 Moyer's Pre-Symposium on March 1st! The Pre-Symposium and main Symposium were both very interesting and informative.
Thesis defenses!
The Nicholas Lab has had several MS thesis defenses this year, starting with Dr. Henna Abassi (Ortho) in December, and Dr. Matt Strumpf (Pediatric Dentistry) and Dr. Lauren Gordon (Ortho) in February. Congrats!!
Clinic and Research Day, 2019
2/19/19 The Nicholas Lab had 6 posters at this year's UIC Clinic and Research Day! Everyone did a great job. A particular congratulations to Dr. Truskoski for winning Best Literature Review (Resident)!
Nicholas Lab Lunch
The Nicholas Lab joined together for a fun lunch. Our annual tradition allows regular lab members and our busy residents to all chat and catch up!
11/3/18 Ben Salameh presents our work on EDAR & GHR gene variants' association with mandibular morphology at the prestigious Hinman Student Research Symposium. Great job, Ben!
Dr. Nicholas (pictured with Dr. Naba) was recognized at the Fall 2018 Faculty Awards reception