CiPD Names Recipients of CiPD-Colgate Fellowship

Philadelphia – The Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD), Penn Dental Medicine’s collaborative center with Penn Engineering, has selected the latest recipients of the CiPD-Colgate Fellowship, naming Drs. Sunghee Lee and Zhenting Xiang to receive this multi-year support of their research and study. Funded by Colgate-Palmolive Company, the Fellowship provides financial support to students engaged in postdoctoral research studies at Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering focused on childhood dental caries and novel anti-biofilm approaches to promote oral health.

“We are thrilled to be able to advance the training of these postdoctoral researchers and the the CiPD mission through this fellowship,” says Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, Co-Director of the CiPD and Professor in the Department of Orthodontics and Divisions of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health at Penn Dental Medicine. “Drs. Lee and Xiang are both engaged in exciting cross-disciplinary work to generate new knowledge and oral health care applications.”

Sunghee Lee

Dr. Lee, who received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry and Nanoscience from Ewha Woman’s University in South Korea, is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Penn Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Daeyeon Lee, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Koo, here at Penn Dental Medicine. During her postdoctoral research, she hopes to apply her experience in chemistry and nanoscience to develop applications of nanomaterials in dental medicine. As a CiPD-Colgate Fellow, she will work on developing new biomaterials and drug-delivery systems for dental biofilm prevention and therapeutic interventions against biofilm-associated oral diseases.

“The CiPD-Colgate Fellowship is a great opportunity to apply my chemical approaches to drug-delivery systems, develop clinically translatable solutions, and help advance oral health care innovations,” says Dr. Lee

Zhenting Xiang

Dr. Xiang, who earned her Ph.D. in Oral Microbiology and DMD in Endodontics in China, joined Penn Dental Medicine in 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher. Her research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of severe childhood caries and seeking novel therapeutic strategies. As a CiPD-Colgate Fellow, she will incorporate high-throughput multi-omics, tissue engineering, and real-time spatial imaging approaches to study how bacterial-fungal interactions shape the biofilm community and host responses to modulate virulence.

“I am excited about the challenges of becoming a dentist-scientist and am fully committed to an academic career dedicated to caries research in the susceptible children population,” says Dr. Xiang.

Dr. Maria Ryan, Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at the Colgate-Palmolive Company, will recognize the CiPD-Colgate Fellows as part of the upcoming CiPD Symposium on June 1, 2023, where Dr. Ryan will also conduct a plenary session on advances in precision oral health. Learn more about the symposium and register >