Penn Dental Medicine student Grace Huang (D’21) has been recognized for her research, taking first place in the junior category of the 2020 American Association for Dental Research (AADR) Hatton Competition. The annual competition awards prizes in three categories (junior, senior and postdoctoral) with winners selected from the top abstracts submitted nationwide.

Active in research throughout her time at Penn Dental Medicine, Ms. Huang’s winning project was titled “Cytolethal Distending Toxin (Cdt) Induces Macrophages to Release Pro-Inflammatory Mediators,” which she conducted with mentor Bruce Shenker, professor in the department of basic and translational sciences.

As a 2019 recipient of a Penn Dental Medicine AADR Travel Award for this project, Ms. Huang would have attended this year’s IADR/AADR/CADR annual meeting in March to present her work. With the meeting cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the AADR Hatton Competition finalists were asked to submit slide and video presentations and were judged on their submission. Judging criteria included originality and design of the investigation, quality of the data produced, suitability of the methods of analysis used, scientific value of the work, quality of the oral presentation and demonstration of mastery of the subject.