The National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year, $3,157,976 grant to Dr. Scott R. Diehl to evaluate some 3,400 school children ages 11 to 15 in a region of Ireland where fluoride is added to drinking water. In the study, researchers will attempt to identify genetic and environmental risk factors for dental fluorosis, a condition characterized by permanent discoloration and weakening of tooth enamel.

Diehl is director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics and Complex Disease Research at UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School. Read more.

A new study being conducted at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School will provide Parkinson's disease patients with strategies to cope with depression through behavior modification rather than drug therapy. It is the first study to be funded by the NIH-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke that uses cognitive-behavioral treatment instead of medication.

The goal of the study, led by Dr. Roseanne Dobkin, assistant professor of psychiatry, is to teach patients and caregivers how to identify patterns of thought related to depression and alter thoughts and behavior to produce positive outcomes. She will help patients boost social interaction and support, learn relaxation techniques and increase exercise. Read more.

Dr. David Kaback, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, has captured the remarkable and never before seen undulations of “dancing chromosomes,” and his discovery may lead to ways to prevent conditions like Down, Turner and Klinefelter's syndromes, as well as lend insight into the causes of first trimester spontaneous miscarriages.

His research focuses on meiosis, the specific type of division that takes place in sperm and egg cells. His work on the process of chromosome pairing has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and in the Journal of Genetics and is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Read more.