Liu Hong, associate professor in the UI College of Dentistry’s Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research and prosthodontics department, has received a two-year, $410,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

The grant will support his research project, “A MicroRNA-based Approach for Bone Regeneration.” The research will demonstrate the function mediated by a member of the microRNA-200 family to enhance osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and bone formation. It will also establish a proof of concept in which this specific microRNA delivered by a non-viral vector can be used to develop a novel therapeutics for bone regeneration. 

Hong is principal investigator. Aliasger Salem, Colleges of Pharmacy and Dentistry, and Brad A. Amendt, associate dean for research at the College of Dentistry, are co-investigators.