A2 EVENTS Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | June 2019 AGD 2019 in Connecticut Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville is host site for event The Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, Conn., is the host site of the Academy of General Dentistry’s 2019 Sci- entific Session, July 18-20. The Mohegan Sun has night clubs, spas, 50 bars and restaurants, 40 shops and a golf club. Nearby are Ocean Beach Park, the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, Mystic Museum of Art, Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium and other attractions. Registration for AGD2019 includes the opening session, exhibit hall, scientific E-poster presentations and invitation to the president’s welcome reception. Optional “course-packages” are spaced to not overlap, giving attendees a quick way to create a schedule around a pri- mary interest. There are 11 packages at various costs: Esthetics, Periodontics, Endodontics, Fixed Prosthodontics, Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Pediatric Den- tistry, Basic Science, Sleep Solutions, Special Patient Care, and Anesthesia and Pain Management. Find more information and registra- tion details at AGD2019.org. (Source: AGD) Main lobby of ihe Mohegan Sun. The casino and resori properiy has nighi clubs, spas, 50 bars and resiauranis, 40 shops and a golf club. Photo/Provided by Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort “ MICRO-ROBOTS, page A1 Together, the cross-school team de- signed, optimized and tested two types of robotic systems, which the group calls catalytic antimicrobial robots, or CARs, capable of degrading and removing bio- films. The first involves suspending iron- oxide nanoparticles in a solution, which can then be directed by magnets to re- move biofilms on a surface in a plow-like manner. The second platform entails em- bedding the nanoparticles into gel molds in three-dimensional shapes. These were used to target and destroy biofilms clog- ging enclosed tubes. Both types of CARs effectively killed bacteria, broke down the matrix that surrounds them and removed the debris with high precision. After testing the ro- bots on biofilms growing on either a flat glass surface or enclosed glass tubes, the researchers tried out a more clinically relevant application: Removing biofilm from hard-to-reach parts of a human tooth. The CARs were able to degrade and re- move bacterial biofilms not just from a tooth surface but from one of the most difficult-to-access parts of a tooth, the isthmus, a narrow corridor between root canals where biofilms commonly grow. “Existing treatments for biofilms are ineffective because they are incapable of simultaneously degrading the protective matrix, killing the embedded bacteria and physically removing the biodegrad- ed products,” says Koo. “These robots can do all three at once very effectively, leav- ing no trace of biofilm whatsoever.” By plowing away the degraded remains of the biofilm, Koo says, the chance of it taking hold and re-growing decreases substantially. The researchers envision precisely directing these robots to wher- ever they need to go to remove biofilms, be it the inside of a cathether or a water line or difficult-to-reach tooth surfaces. “We think about robots as automated systems that take actions based on ac- tively gathered information,” says Stea- ger. In this case, he says, “the motion of the robot can be informed by images of the biofilm gathered from microcameras or other modes of medical imaging.” To move the innovation down the road to clinical application, the researchers are receiving support from the Penn Center for Health, Devices and Technol- ogy, an initiative supported by Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Engi- neering and the office of the vice provost for research. Penn Health-Tech, as it’s known, awards select interdisciplinary groups with support to create new health technologies, and the robotic platforms project was one of those awarded sup- port in 2018. “The team has a great clinical back- ground on the dental side and a great technical background on the engineer- ing side,” says Victoria Berenholz, execu- tive director of Penn Health-Tech. “We help to round them out by connecting them to business mentors and resources within the Penn community to translate their technology. They have really done a fantastic job on the project.” About the study authors In addition to Koo, Steager, Stebe and Ku- mar, the study was cowritten by first au- thor Geelsu Hwang, Amauri J. Paula, Yuan Liu, Alaa Babeer and Bekir Karabucak of the School of Dental Medicine and Eliza- beth E. Hunter of the School of Engineer- ing and Applied Science. The study was supported in part by the National Institute for Dental and Cranio- facial Research (grants DE025848 and DE018023) and National Science Founda- tion. Koo is a professor in the Penn Dental Medicine Department of Orthodontics and in the divisions of pediatric dentistry and community oral health. Steager is a research investigator in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s General Robotics, Automa- tion, Sensing and Perception Laboratory (GRASP Lab). Kumar is the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering with appointments in the departments of mechanical engi- neering and applied mechanics, comput- er and information science, and electrical and systems engineering. Stebe is the Richer and Elizabeth Good- win Professor of Chemical and Biomolecu- lar Engineering in the School of Engineer- ing and Applied Science. 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