LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 27, 2025) — Getting a dental implant installed can be uncomfortable; getting it removed because of infection is considerably more so. That’s the problem that University of Kentucky researchers are trying to solve with a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Insti tutes of Health (NIH). Martha Grady, Ph.D., a Lighthouse Beacon Foundation Scholar and an associate department chair in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is leading a multidisciplinary team to investigate how 3D-printed titanium can be engineered to resist harmful bacteria. “The number of implants placed each year is growing by 500,000 or so every year. And implants are especially important in Kentucky, which has one of the highest rates of tooth loss in the country,” Grady said. For the roughly three million Americans who have dental implants — and the many more who will eventually require permanent medical implants like knee or hip replacements — this science has major impact potential. Traditional prosthetics come in a range of predefined sizes, like shoes. If you fall between sizes, the fit won’t be perfect and could cause issues. As imaging, modeling and 3D printing technologies have advanced, many prosthetics can now be made custom to an individual’s unique anatomy. Although regulatory approval is a major hurdle for 3D-printed metal implants, infection is another important concern. Bacteria can attach to the metal surface and form biofilms, which Grady describes as a protective matrix or goo that bacteria form to shield themselves. Once bacteria create this colony on an implant surface, it becomes difficult to remove with antibiotics or scraping, often leading to surgical intervention. “Our research studies how these biofilms grow on 3D-printed metal surfaces so we can design implants that better resist infection and improve patient outcomes,” Grady said. The NIH-funded project, titled “Engineering Mechanisms Causing Adverse Biofilm Responses to 3D Printed Titanium Surfaces,” aims to develop metrics for fabricating implants that are harder for bacteria to colonize. The resultant materials could have applications beyond dental implants — joint replacement, food processing and even aerospace. Mechanisms Grady often describes her research as “shooting lasers at stuff to see what happens.” For this project, Grady uses a technique called laser-induced spallation — shooting high-energy, pulsed lasers to generate compressive stress waves, which in turn cause tensile waves on the opposite surface of an object, causing controlled delamination. Imagine the classic Newton’s cradle, a set of parallel, suspended metal balls that often sits on a high-school science teacher’s desk. Lift an exterior ball and drop it. Nearly instantly, the exterior ball on the other side flies away from the rest. In laser-induced spallation, the “lifted ball” (impulse) is the laser, the “middle balls” are the material that experience a stress wave, and the “reactive ball” is the biofilm, which is ejected from the material. Using this method, Grady’s lab can measure an Adhesion Index to determine interfacial strength, the maximum stress a bond between two materials can withstand before failing, and the force required to separate the bacteria biofilm from the titanium surface. The Grady lab The Grady lab leads innovative research and is deeply committed to developing the next generation of scientists and engineers. The team draws students from across the University of Kentucky campus — including biology, dentistry and multiple engineering disciplines — creating an interdisciplinary environment where trainees learn to communicate, collaborate and think across traditional boundaries. Students join the lab at every stage of their academic journey: there are first-year undergraduates like Matthew King (a mechanical engineering major), who began building research skills early. Also represented are upper-level engineering students such as Brandon Quigley (biomedical engineering) and Joy Resig (mechanical engineering), who are currently leading a project. Grady’s lab also includes graduate students, like Sahar Afshari (mechanical engineering), who is focused on measuring biofilm adherence to dental implant materials for this project, and postdoctoral scholars like Lauren Mehanna (chemical and materials engineering), who has accepted a position as a tenure track faculty member at Centre College. The opportunities even extend to select high school researchers who gain hands‑on experience. “What excites me most is getting involved in meaningful engineering and hands on experimentation that addresses real-world issues,” Quigley said. Nina Jazdzewski (mechanical engineering), another student researcher in Grady’s lab, agreed. “Working with biofilms is exciting because, although they have been causing problems for a long time, there is still so much we do not know about them, therefore every single experiment and every single observation counts in your research,” she said. The lab’s impact extends far beyond its day-to-day experiments. Grady has built a training ecosystem that prioritizes personal growth, scientific rigor and long-term success. “People will always mean more than products and papers,” Grady says, a philosophy reflected in the lab’s culture of mentorship and support. “I may be the only permanent member of the Grady Lab, but that’s the point. Everyone else docks like a ship in the harbor — learning, growing, gaining new skills — and then sets sail toward new destinations.” This vision ensures that the lab’s greatest legacy is not just its discoveries, but the people who carry those discoveries forward. A team science approach Grady emphasized that what makes UK a unique place to pursue this research is the ability to collaborate across colleges. Her NIH project harnesses a “team science” approach, bringing together dentists, microbiologists and material scientists. “I collaborate with dentistry, medicine and pharmacy. I’ve got colleagues in chemistry and biology. It’s going to take solving this problem from multiple perspectives,” Grady said. This interdisciplinary expertise is also training the next generation of Kentucky engineers. Grady’s students are learning to design experiments that determine stress and biocompatibility in ways that could have wide implications. Grady’s team will host a “build a biofilm” activity during Engineers Day (E-Day) Feb. 28 to help the public and future scientists understand the importance of biofilm mechanics. For more information, visit https://grady.engr.uky.edu/ Research reported in this publication is supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01DE034438. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.  The post UK research team awarded $1.9 million NIH grant to combat biofilm appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less