TWO AU STUDENTS RECEIVE DKK 186,000 EACH FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS AND PUT THEIR STUDIES ON HOLD

Abas Jafari and Simon Filip Pascu both completed their bachelor's degrees at Aarhus School of Dentistry this summer. Both now get the chance to experience life as researchers, as they take a research year before starting their master’s degree. Moreover, each has received a grant of DKK 186,000 from the Danish Dental Association.

Dentistry and medical students at AU have the opportunity to take a research year, during which they focus on a specific area of research. You don’t receive Students’ Grants (SU) during the research year, so you are responsible for applying for funds and grants to cover the costs of research experiments and your own salary.

21-year-old Abas Jafari will use his scholarship to conduct research into Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS), which typically affects women during menopause and can cause changes in taste and burning pain in the mouth – hence the name. 

"The special thing about this disease is that you cannot see any clinical signs in the mouth, and it cannot be cured," Abas Jafari says. 

"My research project focuses specifically on the taste changes that patients may experience," he says.

"I will therefore recruit some patients who are suspected of having BMS, confirm the diagnosis and only then conduct taste tests on them," he says.

“BMS is a rare disease, which in itself is a positive thing,” Abas Jafari says. 

For the research project, however, this has meant that recruiting patients has required a little extra work.

Simon Filip Pascu, 24, will be researching caries, the most common non-contagious disease worldwide. 

"Cavities occur when bacteria in the plaque on the teeth convert sugar into acid," Simon Filip Pascu says. 

"My focus will be on the mucus that surrounds the bacteria," Simon Filip Pascu says. 

"I think it's really cool to nerd out on something for a whole year," he says. 

“I hope to find out whether a research career is right for me,” Simon Filip Pascu says.

The familiar, everyday life of being a student is put on hold for a while as the two dentistry students focus on their research projects.

Both Abas Jafari and Simon Filip Pascu agree that everyday life looks a little different compared to when they were students in the Bachelor's degree programme.

"You're in a bit of a strange position. I'm still a student, but I also have a part-time job," Abas Jafari says.

"I have to organise my time to a greater extent than I did during my bachelor's degree. I actually think it's been nice to be more flexible," Simon Filip Pascu says.

Since experiments and flexibility have replaced lectures and class lessons, there isn’t nearly as much daily contact with their fellow students from the bachelor's degree programme.

Fortunately, Abas Jafari and Simon Filip Pascu are in the same group of friends.

"We're a good group of guys from the bachelor's programme, but I have to make a bit more effort to stay in touch. We still see each other, though," Simon Filip Pascu says.

"We are still in touch, but we don't see each other as often as we used to," says Abas Jafari.

While they have less contact with their fellow students, the two students occasionally bounce ideas off each other.

"We're not researching the same thing, but we spar with each other and pop into each other's offices," Simon Filip Pascu says.

Every year, the Danish Dental Association awards scholarships to dentistry students. The scholarship has a maximum duration of one year. Dentistry students can apply for scholarships from the association once a year. Last year, dentistry students William Astrup Kaaber, Karina Herholdt Petersen and Sara Volf Jensen from AU received the scholarship.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen.