Dr. Alejandro Almarza Awarded $16.5M NIH Grant

Alex and Dr. Woo

Dr. Alejandro Almarza, a former MSRC Post-Doctoral fellow, has been awarded a U54 cooperative agreement grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), totaling $16.5 million over the next five years. This is the largest single investment NIDCR has ever made in research for Temporomandibular Disorders (TMDs).

Alex, now a professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences and Bioengineering and a member of the Center for Craniofacial Regeneration at the University of Pittsburgh, will lead the project titled Collaborative for REsearch to Advance TMD Evidence (CREATE).

Through this initiative, Alex and his team in the TJB Lab will oversee multi-site clinical studies across five research centers to better understand TMD pain. By gathering large-scale patient data, the project aims to begin stratifying patients, an essential step toward developing more effective, personalized treatment approaches.

We congratulate Alex on this remarkable achievement and look forward to following the progress of this transformative research.