New
Grants Awarded (2007-2008)
William H. Bowen, B.D.S., Ph.D.
Welcher Professor Emeritus of Microbiology & Immunology in the Center for Oral Biology; Professor Emeritus of Environmental Medicine
Use of GtfB as a Diagnostic for Caries Research
American Dental Association Foundation
8/04/08-8/3/10
The objective of this proposal is the assessment of the clinical utility of using S. mutans GtfB as a predictor of incipient early childhood caries activity for identification of those children most needing early intervention.
James E. Melvin, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology & Physiology in the Center for Oral Biology
Training Program in Oral Science
NIH 5T32DE07202
8/1/07-7/31/12
The Center for Oral Biology in the Aab Institute of Biomedical Sciences, in collaboration with the Departments of Pharmacology & Physiology, Microbiology & Immunology, Biomedical Genetics, Dentistry, Medicine and Dermatology, has been awarded $4M in funding by NIDCR/NIH to continue support for their T32 grant “Training Program in Oral Science.” A greater number of highly skilled, interactive clinician-scientists (DDS/DMD, MD, and PhD) with diverse expertise and who can effectively respond to the growing opportunities in dental, oral and craniofacial research must be generated for society to take advantage of the rapid and dramatic advances being made in the biomedical sciences.
Thus, the overall goal of the Training Program in Oral Science is to provide enhanced training opportunities for oral biologists and dentist-scientists that will enable them to pursue research careers in dentistry and medicine at academic, federal and industrial organizations. Cross-disciplinary training will focus on the fields of oral infectious diseases and the cellular, developmental and molecular biology of craniofacial structures with an emphasis on understanding the basic mechanisms that underlie the clinical manifestations of oral disease. The proposed curriculum will focus on the integration of basic science research and clinical practice. The Training Program focuses on the recruitment of dentists who wish to pursue a PhD and dentist-PhDs who want to engage in post-doctoral level training. A major component of the program is committed to the recruitment of dental students into a joint DMD-DDS/PhD program (DSTP). These are students who wish to coordinate their clinical training with PhD research studies. This novel program partners dental schools with excellent clinical programs, but with no PhD level training (University of Puerto Rico and Marquette University), with the highly regarded PhD programs at the research-intensive University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. We will also recruit PhDs and baccalaureate degree-holders pursuing a PhD. In this manner, PhD level scientists can be exposed and ultimately recruited to the field of Oral Science.
Click here for further information.
Wei
Hsu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Genetics
in the Center for Oral Biology
Mammary Stem Cells in Development and Cancer
DOD Breast Cancer Research Program BC060349
5/14/07-6/13/10
The primary focus of this proposal is to explore the role of newly identified mammary stem cells in mammary development and tumorigenesis.
Catherine
Ovitt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Genetics
in the Center for Oral Biology
Radioprotection by targeted siRNA delivery to salivary gland (Steve Dewhurst, Co- PI)
NIH R21 DE019302
8/1/08-7/31/10
Studies focus on: 1) To develop efficient, nanoparticle-based methods to deliver siRNA to SG cells. 2) To determine whether siRNA-mediated gene knockdown can protect against irradiation-induced SG damage.
Robert G.
Quivey, Jr., Ph.D.
Director, Center for Oral Biology; Dean's Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
in the Center for Oral Biology; Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
Fitness Profling of the Streptococcus mutans genome
NIH R01DE017425-01A1
6/1/07-5/31/12
The major goals of the proposed project are the following: Specific Aim 1a. High throughput methods will be tailored to reproducibly delete individual genes in the entire S. mutans genome. Each deletion will be marked by the presence of two unique DNA sequences (18-20 bp) such that abundance of each particular mutant strain in a population of mutants and wild type can be scored using these “bar codes.” Specific Aim 1b. A genomic set of marked deletions will be constructed, resulting in a library of S. mutans strains bearing knockouts of all non-essential genes. Methods to analyze gene function by fitness profiling will be used to determine a function for each gene in S. mutans. Specific Aim 2. To find genes that may affect growth in the oral cavity, we will test mutant strains for their ability to grow, in vitro, in acidic conditions. Then, we will use the knockout library in fitness profiling experiments under defined conditions, which will include the following: 1) co-culture of the library of mutant strains growing in acidic environments, including planktonic and biofilm cultures; and, 2) a mouse infection model, in which the mice are fed a highly cariogenic diet. These experiments will be done as screens for candidate strains to be examined individually in the mouse caries model. Specific Aim 3. We will also examine the ability of the library of mutant strains to grow in the presence of additional species of oral microbes, with the aim of identifying those genes in S. mutans that contribute to its ability to out-compete other oral organisms.
Collaborative Awards with COB Faculty
Ted Begenisich, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology; Professor in the Center for Oral Biology
R01DE019245
An experimental/computational approach for understanding salivary fluid secretion (James Melvin, David Yule, and Trevor Shuttleworth- Co-Investigators)
8/15/08-6/30/13
While substantial advances have been made in our understanding of exocrine gland function and regulation, there remain significant gaps in our knowledge. In particular, we have not yet achieved a clear picture of the synergisms required among signaling pathways and effector molecules to modulate fluid production from salivary glands. We shall address this problem using a multi-scale mathematical and computational model. Unlike purely experimental work, such mathematical models are able to provide an overall understanding of how the behavior of a complex system depends on the behaviors of its constituent elements. Initially we shall develop models of individual parotid acinar and duct cells, and couple these models into a large-scale model of a prototypical secretory unit of a single acinus and associated duct. The model will then be validated and tested against a large set of existing experimental results, and will be used to develop further experiments to test hypotheses about salivary gland function and regulation. In particular, we will examine how intercellular coupling affects salivary secretion, how secretion depends on the spatial positioning and functioning of the various ion channels, and how oscillations in the intracellular calcium concentration affect saliva secretion.
David Guzick, MD, Ph.D.
Dean/Director - Department of Dean's Office, SMD;
Professor - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
NYSTEM (Wei Hsu- PI of Subproject)
NY Stem Grant for Institutional Development of Stem Cell Research Capabilities
4/1/08-3/31/09
This is a supplemental support of mammary stem cell work.
