Penn Dental Medicine faculty member Adeyinka Dayo has been recognized by the National Dental Association Foundation and Colgate-Palmolive as the inaugural recipient of their Trailblazers in Oral Health Research Scholars of African American Heritage (TORCH) fellowship. The TORCH program seeks to attract and develop young researchers of African heritage with the goal of increasing representation and participation in oral health research in both academia and industry, and in turn, ultimately advance the impact of oral health science on communities of color. Selected for their contributions to the field and their promise for making future contributions, recipients receive a stipend, mentorship, and professional development programs as well as industry exposure through Colgate.

“As an African American clinician-scientist, I understand the gravity of the global impact of health disparities and the importance of translational clinical research in bridging the gap,” said Dr. Dayo. “I’m honored to be part of this program, because it will provide me the tools which I need to further refine my research and dedicate my time to establish possible radiographic links between vascular calcifications and comorbidities, most especially diabetes – a condition affecting over 34.2 million U.S. adults.”

Originally from Nigeria, Dr. Dayo, an assistant professor of oral medicine, has been part of the Penn Dental faculty since 2019, after obtaining her master’s in dental science and certificate in oral and maxillofacial radiology from the University of Texas Health, San Antonio in 2018. Presently, she is a 2022 DMD candidate in the Penn Dental Medicine advanced standing students program, which enables foreign-trained dentists to earn their degree.

Currently, she plans to conduct an ethically guided retrospective chart review, as well as design new prospective clinical trials with broad collaboration, to establish the link between medial arterial calcification, diabetes, and periodontal bone loss. The World Health Organization (WHO) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG target 3.4) aims to reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through prevention and treatment. “NCDs kill about 40 million people annually [and cause] approximately 70% of deaths globally,” said Dr. Dayo. “Hence, sensitive biological predictive markers for early detection of these disease conditions will contribute toward achieving the goal of reduction in mortality rate from NCDs. It will be a privilege for me to be able to contribute in this way to help reduce the global burden of diabetes.”