In the Lab: CHS Student Pursues Solutions to Periodontal Disease
Human health sciences (HHS) major Amina Nouri is no stranger to persistence. During the many hours she spends in the lab each week, she is faced with countless frustrations and triumphs. “One day you’ll run the perfect experiment with the perfect results,” she said. “But, when you try to reproduce it, it just doesn’t happen. You might repeat the experiment four or five times before you get the results you want.”
Hailing from Baghdad, Iraq, the student ambassador and current junior is two years into her dental research as part of the College of Health Sciences’ undergraduate research program.
Nouri assists her mentor, Octavio Gonzalez, DDS, PhD, MS, associate professor in the College of Dentistry, in-clinic and directly interacts with patients who are impacted by periodontal disease (infections of the gums and bone support surrounding the teeth). “It’s a serious condition,” she said. “Patients can’t eat or floss because the disease can cause their teeth to fall out.”
“Periodontal disease affects millions of people all around the world,” Nouri continued. “When people hear about periodontal disease, they think, ‘Oh, it’s only the older population that has to worry about this condition,’ but that population actually encompasses 64 million Americans.”
In high school, Nouri began to shadow Lexington dentists and quickly realized the personal impact of the profession. “To most people, dentistry is only about taking care of your teeth,” she said. “But, the mouth really leads to the rest of your body. There’s a ton of published research that shows your oral health is also linked to your cardiovascular and pulmonary health.”
When the time came to apply for college, Nouri already had her sights set on the human health sciences program at CHS. “My number one goal was to major in HHS because it was going to really prepare me for dentistry. This college prepares you better than any of the others since you can begin shadowing experiences as early as freshman year,” she said. “I started out in orthodontics and then moved into general dentistry.”
Nouri encourages all students to get involved with the CHS undergraduate research program. “It’s the first undergraduate research certificate program at UK and it’s also exposed me to the realities of health care,” she explained. “Once you shadow, you get excited about helping people. I learned there is so much more to dentistry than just clinical treatment. You have to understand how bacteria work and immerse yourself in research to see what others have done. This gives you a better idea about different diseases and how to target and control them.”
According to Nouri, her research with Dr. Gonzalez is going exceptionally well. “I haven’t presented anything yet,” she said, “but I think we’re really close. We’ve been getting really great results, but my mentor wants me to have excellent results so that we can make publications and present the results for others to see.”
Additionally, participating in the undergraduate research program has taught Nouri what it could look like to be a clinician and researcher in the real world. “I have to balance nine hours each week in the lab with my lectures and ensure all my schoolwork is done. It’s definitely helped me develop better time management skills,” she said.
Ultimately, though, her expanded understanding of the lab is the most valuable. “My education is my number one priority,” Nouri said. “I think all of the knowledge that I’ve gained, all of the experience I’ve gained, that’s success to me.”