Graduate Dental Student Receives Nation's Highest Research Award in Orthodontics

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Dr. Rodrigo Viecilli, a graduate student in the IU School of Dentistry’s orthodontics and dental science programs, has received the highest award for graduate-level research bestowed by the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO).

He was honored with the Milo Hellman Research Award at the AAO’s annual session in Boston earlier this month.

The prize includes $3,000, but for Viecilli the value of the Hellman award has little to do with money. “The award itself is the greatest prize for me,” he says. “It is a lifetime recognition I will share with some of the most prominent scientists in my specialty.”

A native of Brazil who earned his dental degree at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Viecilli came to IU to study in a combined program that in his case will culminate in a PhD degree in Dental Science and a master’s degree in Orthodontics. He’s currently at the tail end of the PhD and the half-way point in the master’s program. His primary mentor for the award-winning project is Dr. Thomas Katona, a faculty member in the dental school’s Orthodontics and Oral Facial Genetics department.

Viecilli was recognized for his biomechanical investigation of the P2X7 receptor, which is a protein molecule that plays a significant role in orthodontic mechanotransduction, the process by which dental appliances such as braces stimulate the necessary changes to a patient’s bone structure during orthodontic therapy.

While in Boston he presented the results of his study, which demonstrated that orthodontic responses are related to the principal stress patterns in the periodontal ligament. The work also draws attention to the important role the P2X7 receptor plays in mechanotransduction. The results will be published later this year by the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.

The Hellman award helps validate Viecilli’s decision to steer himself toward the orthodontic specialty’s academic community, he says. “I left a profitable orthodontic practice in my country to pursue an academic career and spend four financially unprofitable years pursuing a PhD. It was very difficult at times, and it wouldn’t be true if I said I never questioned my decision. Getting this award made me very happy and confirmed that I am on the right path in dedicating my professional career to research and teaching.”

The year 2009 is turning out to be a very good one for Rodrigo Viecilli in more ways than one. He’ll soon start another biomechanics clinical project with Dr. Jie Chen, a faculty member at the School of Engineering and Technology and an adjunct professor at the School of Dentistry. Their study is funded by the National Institutes of Health for about a million dollars. Viecilli has also been asked to present his research to the Portuguese Orthodontic Society in the Porto University medical school in Porto, Portugal.

Viecilli views the Hellman award and the new NIH grant as positives for IU. “It is a great sign that orthodontic research at IU is moving in the right direction,” he says. “Pursuing biomechanical research will certainly help IU’s orthodontic program maintain its place among the best in the country.”