Research Opportunities

Research is an essential component supporting the education of dental and graduate students within the School of Dentistry and the university-at-large. Sponsored research has almost tripled since 1995, which is in large part due to UCLA’s internationally renowned faculty and our strong focus on faculty-student research. Our academic programs provide a range of opportunities to integrate clinical training with basic or applied research, and multidisciplinary research is highly valued. UCLA provides a research home for undergraduate, graduate, and dental students, with a unique opportunity to participate in significant oral health research.

The UCLA T90/R90 research-training program is an NIH-funded Institutional Training Program from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) that seeks to bolster a vigorous and diverse dental, oral and craniofacial research workforce. This training program aims to train the next generation of dentist-scientists and oral health scientists to conduct basic, translational, and clinical research to improve dental, oral, and craniofacial health.

We provide trainees novel and innovative research training experiences via a rigorous and interdisciplinary training program in a supportive institutional environment, with outstanding faculty mentors, whose research is at the forefront of their fields. We offer 5 training tracks in 4 areas of research emphasis to domestic (T90) and foreign (R90) fellows.

The UCLA School of Dentistry was awarded a K12 Institutional Career Development Program Award. The purpose of this program is to support institutional career development awards designed to prepare newly-trained clinicians who have made a commitment to independent research careers, and to facilitate their transition to more advanced support mechanisms.

Appointees are at the postdoctoral or residency level and are either a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with research or clinical doctoral degree.

The UCLA Dental Research Fellowship Program is a gateway for UCLA dental students interested in scientific explorations to participate in mentored research. With a wide range of exciting research topics under investigation at the School of Dentistry, students in the program can conduct one of four types of research: literature review, basic science research, public and population health research, or clinical research.

UCLA has been awarded a grant of more than $1.6 million from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The five-year grant will enable UCLA to expand its Bruins-in-Genomics Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which brings undergraduates from across the country, including from historically Black colleges and universities, to UCLA to conduct research and learn the latest data analysis techniques and skills.

With the assistance of the grant, Bruins-in-Genomics has launched the Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Research Training Program, which will give 20 undergraduates the opportunity to work with a dozen faculty members in the UCLA School of Dentistry each summer.

Office of Research
Direct: (310) 206-8045
ayoung-singleton@dentistry.ucla.edu