David Dodington

David Dodington, a master’s student in Applied Health Sciences, was in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5 to 7, to present his research at a leading conference held by the American Society for Nutrition.

Dodington was chosen as one of seven students and young professionals to receive a $750-travel award to attend and present at the 2013 Advances and Controversies in Clinical Nutrition conference. He was the only Canadian to receive an award based on abstracts he submitted for the conference. Other recipients were from the U.S., South Korea, Columbia and Ireland.

“Being selected to receive this award was a tremendous honour and gave me the opportunity to learn from some of the top experts in the field,” Dodington said.

The conference features the latest research, advancements, and best practices in clinical nutrition. The conference included lectures, controversy sessions, workshops, professional development, scientific posters, networking, and more.

Dodington’s abstract was titled “Vitamin D status and periodontal outcomes after non-surgical periodontal therapy.” He presented only some of the research he is conducting into the role of nutrition in the treatment for periodontal disease. Dodington’s research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

As part of his work, Dodington is collaborating with periodontist Peter Fritz to examine the extent to which diet and supplement use can help healing after a non-surgical, deep cleaning procedure aimed at treating periodontal disease and preventing tooth loss.

He attended the conference with his supervisor Prof. Wendy Ward, a Canada Research Chair in bone and muscle development.

“The award puts David in some very exclusive company of only a handful of graduate students and young medical professionals from around the world, who the society recognizes for the caliber of their research and the significance it holds in the area of health and nutrition,” Ward said.