AADR awards the second AADR Anne D. Haffajee Fellowship to Kyounga Cheon

Alexandria, Va., USA – The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) has announced Kyounga Cheon, DMD, MS,  as the second recipient of the AADR Anne D. Haffajee Fellowship. She was recognized at the Opening Ceremonies of the 47th Annual Meeting of the AADR, held in conjunction with the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR). The AADR/CADR Annual Meeting is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from March 21-24, 2018.

Cheon is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Cheon graduated from the Dental School at South Korea and was trained as an orthodontist at the Korean Orthodontic Research Institute. Her research career began at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where she worked on an interdisciplinary research project bridging clinical and molecular biology to identify novel biomarkers for lung cancer patients.

Inspired by this research experience, she pursued an academic career at University of Alabama at Birmingham. She successfully completed the Pediatric Dental Residency Program while at the same time working on her master’s degree in oral biology by receiving a number of fellowships including Rahemtulla Endowed Scholarship Award for Achievement in Research and she was awarded a National Research Service Award T32 post-doctoral fellowship for her postdoctoral research.

Cheon’s current research focuses on the investigation of Streptococcus mutans genotypes to determine the cause of caries in high-risk children and develop early diagnostic tool for prevention of dental caries, as well as tooth regeneration using novel nitric oxide releasing biomimetic nano-matrix gel.