During the program’s nine-week summer component, students work in the School of Dentistry’s state-of-the-art laboratories and clinics. Hands-on duties encompass a wide range of research tasks, such as conducting literature searches, preparing specimens, doing record reviews, gathering data and analyzing results.

At the end of the summer, each produce a research paper and submit a research abstract for the next national meeting of the American Association for Dental Oral and Craniofacial Research at which they present their research results.

On July 20, the Summer Scholars also participated in a closed competition to determine UMKC’s representative for the 2024 Student Competition for Advancing Dental Research and its Application (SCADA), which will be held at the American Association for Dental Oral and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) meeting in New Orleans in March 2024.  Shreya Patel was selected as the winner of the SOD competition and will represent UMKC at AADOCR. Her project title was ‘Reversible MMPs Inhibition and Biostability in Crosslinked Dentin Collagen.’ Shreya’s mentors were Dr. Viviane Hass and Dr. Yong Wang. In addition to Shreya’s participation in the 2024 SCADA competition, both scholars will present their research as part of the general session in New Orleans.

Upon successful completion of the program, students earn one credit hour of independent study. (See table below for a complete list of the scholars, mentors, and projects.)