Second-year Student Brianna Yang Recognized for Research in Hatton Awards Competition

 

Brianna Yang with Dr. Mary MacDougall, Immediate Past President of IADR

Philadelphia — Second-year Penn Dental Medicine student Brianna Yang has been recognized for her achievements in research as the second place winner in the junior category of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR)/Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Hatton Awards Competition, presented March 20, 2013 at the opening ceremony of the 2013 IADR/AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition in Seattle.

The competition is designed for junior investigators who exhibit potential for a productive career in dental research and is open to students in three categories – junior, senior and post-doctoral. Nine students nationwide were selected to compete in each of the categories. Candidates presented their research in an oral presentation format for the Competition, but also presented a poster for the General Session.

As the second place winner in the junior category, Yang was one of two students who went on to represent the American division in the 2013 IADR/Unilever Hatton Competition and Awards, also held at the 2013 IADR/AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition in Seattle. The IADR/Unilever Hatton Competition and Awards is designed to provide an opportunity for the best junior investigators from all IADR Divisions and non-Divisional Sections to present their research at the annual IADR General Session.

Yang’s research was on a project titled “The Role of Src-Family Kinases in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma,” a collaborative study between Penn Dental Medicine and Perelman School of Medicine under faculty preceptors Dr. Thomas Sollecito, Chair and Professor of Oral Medicine at Penn Dental Medicine, and Dr. John Seykora of the School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology.