SDM Student Honored for Preventive Research
Xiuli Sun (SDM’08) is one of six students worldwide to win a Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award.
Xiuli Sun (SDM’08) has won a Colgate Research in Prevention Travel Award for her abstract “Oral Fungal Disease Prevention: Impact of Histatin Proteolysis.” She is one of just six recipients internationally and the only winner in the United States.
Sun’s research, which she worked on with Frank Oppenheim, a professor and chair of the department of periodontology and oral biology at the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Eva Helmerhorst, an SDM assistant professor of periodontology and oral biology, and Erdjan Salih, an SDM research assistant professor in the same department, focuses on the impact of proteolysis, or protein digestion, on the structure and function of proteins in saliva.
The $2,000 prize, sponsored by the Colgate-Palmolive Company, covers expenses to attend the annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research, being held this year from March 21 to 24 in New Orleans. Sun and the other winners will present their papers during the session.