The ADA Forsyth Institute (AFI) has been awarded a $6.2 million grant from the National Institute of Oral and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Funded under the highly competitive RM1 mechanism, this five-year award will support a groundbreaking project to develop next-generation smart materials for dental fillings using physics-based artificial intelligence (AI).
This innovation marks one of the first applications of AI for basic research in oral health, aimed at accelerating the testing and development process. Next-generation smart material The new dental composite will feature self-healing and antimicrobial properties, incorporating nanofillers that react to biological signals. "Imagine you have a crack developing in the filling," said biomaterials expert Jirun Sun, PhD, the contact principal investigator (PI) leading the multi-PI team.
"The material will detect that change and repair the crack. Or if your mouth has a lot of acid that lowers the pH, which is known to break down traditional composites and tooth structure, the material will counteract the acid. The smart material will automatically respond to changing conditions in each individual patient's mouth.
" Transdisciplinary effort maximizing AI capabilities The transdisciplinary team of scientists will integrate experiments with a physics-based model of testing and data-driven simulations as part of the material design and evaluation of these complex and dynamic materials. The AFI team has partnered with Optimuos, a d.
