Dr. Iacopino has been involved in the broad area of Oral-Systemic Health for over 20 years as a researcher, scholar, and clinician. He has provided numerous continuing education programs on this topic locally, nationally, and internationally during this time. These have included individual study clubs, annual meetings, and workshops/symposia with presentations ranging from one-hour to half-day and full-day programs based on specific audience interests. His knowledge and expertise spans the evidence base of the biomedical literature, clinical applications, inter-professional collaboration among various health practitioners, and public policy partnerships between academia, industry, government, and healthcare systems.
Dr. Iacopino completed the prestigious National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Dentist/Scientist Training Program in 1991 at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. As part of this program, he earned his dental specialty certification in Prosthodontics and a PhD degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology. Additionally, he completed certificate training in Craniomandibular Disorders and Dental Implantology as well as a fellowship in Geriatrics and Gerontology. During his training period, Dr. Iacopino was very active in the field of geriatric dentistry serving as director of the first dental clinic in the United States specifically for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related dementias at the Robert Wood Johnson Community Mental Health Center. He assumed a leadership role within the dental profession regarding alternative treatment techniques and treatment settings for this patient population.
From 1991 to 1999, Dr. Iacopino was a faculty member at the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas where he maintained a joint appointment in Prosthodontics and Biomedical Sciences distributing his efforts among the clinical, basic science, and research areas. During this time, he became one of the first dental researchers to investigate the connection between oral disease and systemic diseases, focusing on the way periodontal disease changes basic blood biochemistry and immune cell physiology. He is internationally recognized for the initial work on the relationship between periodontal disease, systemic inflammation, and diabetes. In 1999, Dr. Iacopino became the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and Director of the Wisconsin Geriatric Education Center at the Marquette University School of Dentistry in Milwaukee. In 2007, Dr. Iacopino became the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada where he established the first International Centre for Oral-Systemic Health in January of 2008 and currently serves as the founding executive director.
Dr. Iacopino has a national/international reputation in dental research and dental education having presented numerous keynote lectures/symposia at meetings for the National Institutes of Health, American Association of Dental Research, American Dental Association, and the American Dental Education Association. He has served on 6 NIH study sections and served as a manuscript reviewer for 32 dental and/or basic science journals. Additionally, he has been a contributing editor/editorial board member for 2 journals and has been a grant reviewer for 7 national/international organizations. He served as the Associate Editor for Grand Rounds in Oral-Systemic Medicine, the first interprofessional journal dedicated to communicating new scientific information about the oral health-systemic health connection and collaborative practice models to health professionals and the public. Dr. Iacopino has been a consultant and key opinion leader within the dental industry for many years and has served as PI or Co-I on 28 research and/or training grants totaling $12,000,000. He also has published 175 peer-reviewed manuscripts/book chapters and has presented 200 abstracts/invited lectures internationally.
