The University of Colorado Anschutz School of Dental Medicine has renamed its research department from the Department of Craniofacial Biology to the Department of Craniofacial, Oral and Materials Sciences — a change that signals more than a branding update. It reflects years of research expansion that had quietly outgrown the department's original name.
The department's work now spans orofacial development, the genetics of craniofacial diseases, cancer signaling, and a materials science program with roots in polymer chemistry and dental biomaterials. That last thread — materials science — is a meaningful addition to the name. Ongoing projects include 3D inkjet-printed dentures and antimicrobial biomaterials designed to limit microbial colonization on denture surfaces, work that sits at the intersection of bench science and clinical application.
Department Chair David Clouthier, Ph.D., described the department's mission as bringing together scientists to study the craniofacial complex "across development, disease and regeneration, using multiple complementary methodologies." Vice Chair Katherine Fantauzzo, Ph.D., added that the new name better reflects the department's multi-faceted approach to understanding craniofacial development and disease — making the full scope of the portfolio visible to collaborators, applicants, and funders.
The timing is deliberate. The department plans to launch an open-rank tenure-track faculty search in May, covering developmental biology, genetics, genomics, epigenomics, regeneration, systems biology, and data science. A name that signals the breadth of the department's research makes that recruitment easier.
The addition of "oral" to the title is also practically useful — it clarifies to clinicians and oral health researchers that the department's core focus areas intersect with clinical dentistry, not just laboratory science.
Funding stability has supported the expansion. Teams continue to receive competitive awards from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows regularly earn individual NIH fellowships and career development grants — a meaningful signal given the pressure on federal research funding nationally.
The full department profile is available at dental.cuanschutz.edu.
Source: University of Colorado Anschutz School of Dental Medicine