Multidisciplinary Academic Research Training in Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Sciences

MARTDOCS Mentors

• Michael Bailey, PhD

  Associate Professor, Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity, College of Medicine Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine Research Interests: Role of intestinal epithelial cells in stressor-induced exacerbation of infectious colitis.

• John Bartlett, PhD

  Associate Dean for Research, College of Dentistry Professor, Division of Biosciences Research Interests: Dental enamel development, understand the molecular events that cause dental fluorosis.

• Brian Foster, PhD

  Associate Professor, Division of Biosciences Research Interests: Molecular biology of tooth root development and mineralization, with interests including genes, mechanisms, diseases, and novel regeneration strategies.

• Jonathan Godbout, PhD

  Professor, Department of Neuroscience, College of Medicine Research Interests: Determining the degree to which the bi-directional communication between the brain and the immune system is affected by age, stress, and traumatic CNS injury. In addition, to delineate the mechanism by which inflammatory cytokine pathways cause long-lasting complications.

• Ching-Chang Ko, DDS, MS, PhD

  Bone diseases that affect dental health, biomaterials for bone cell regeneration, biomimetic bone cements for dental implants, and nanocomposite scaffolds for TMJ-related tissue engineering.

• Justin Kaspar, PhD

  Dr. Kaspar's research interests center on the microbial interactions that occur within the human oral cavity. Specifically, his lab explores physical contact-dependent interactions between early colonizers of supragingival biofilm communities and pathogens such as Streptococcus mutans. Additionally, he studies the biogeography or spatial arrangement of bacteria within oral biofilms, and its role in cooperative/antagonistic interactions between bacterial species. Finally, he studies Gram-positive bacterial communication in the form of peptide or 'pheromone' signaling through detailing specific pathway(s) in oral streptococci.

• Olga (Niki) Kokiko Cochran, PhD

  Inflammation following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a dynamic response of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, which is influenced by age, sex, injury location and severity. Because inflammation occurs after all brain injuries, I considers it an integral component of recovery.

• Binnaz Lebelebicioglu, DDS, PhD

  Professor, Division of Periodontology Research Interests: Peri-implant wound healing and treatment outcomes; specifically focusing on soft tissue healing, the formation of soft tissue sealing as well as host response against dental devices.

• Susan Mallery, DDS, PhD

  Chair, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Radiology Professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Radiology Research Interests: Chemoprevention of oral cancer by natural products, using a continuum of experimental designs that range from cell and animal models to human clinical trials to provide mechanistic insights and determine chemopreventive efficacy, with a focus on controlled-release, local delivery methods.

• Dana McTigue, PhD

  My laboratory uses rodent preclinical models of spinal cord injury (SCI) to examine the endogenous reparative response within the spinal cord, and systemic and metabolic problems that occur as a result of the injury. Specifically, we study the response of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (NG2+ cells) to SCI, including intracellular and extracellular factors that influence their behavior and their ability to form new remyelinating oligodendrocytes. Our systemic studies revealed marked and chronic liver pathology occurs after SCI that is consistent with the development of fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome, a feature that is common in the SCI population and likely contributes to their reduced lifespan. We are examining mechanisms that drive chronic post-injury liver inflammation and testing translatable approaches to reduce liver pathology and improve overall liver and metabolic health after SCI.

• Luiz Meirelles, DDS, MS, PhD

  My research activity has focused on understanding the relationship between surface-mechanical properties of biomaterials and host tissue responses and seeking for novel therapeutic strategies that effectively control the mechanism of tissue response.  Clinical research involves utilizing intra-oral scanner measurements to quantify oral health outcomes and quantitatively monitor oral disease.

• Steve Oghumu, PhD

  Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of oral carcinogenesis and oral cancer chemoprevention. We are developing preclinical models that will enable us to fully explore the underlying mechanisms of oral cancer progression and metastasis, as well as the effects of immunomodulatory compounds on oral cancer outcomes. Our long term goal is to identify discrete significant mediators of oral carcinogenesis that can be exploited in preventive and/or therapeutic strategies to reduce the risk of oral cancer development.
   

• Sarah Peters, MS, PhD

  I am interested in how peptidergic neurons communicate with dental pulp stem cells during early postnatal development to create a sensory tooth. I'm similarly interested in how an injury affects this communication in an adult tooth to help maintain and repair the tooth organ. Most recently, I've begun to research how teeth age and if this differs between males and females.

• Phillip Popovich, PhD

  Professor, Department of Neuroscience Research Interests: Neuroimmunology of spinal cord injury, immunological influences on neuronal degeneration and regeneration, neuroendocrine influences (e.g., stress/HPA axis activation) on inflammatory mediated injury/repair of the CNS.

• Leah Pyter, PhD

  Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Research Interests: Cancer behavioral comorbidities, psychoneuroimmunology, wound healing, stress.

• Peter Reiser, PhD

  Professor, Division of Biosciences Research Interests: Exploring differences in muscle properties between species. Focusing on the roles of sarcomeric protein isoforms in regulating contractile properties of muscle. Specific areas of interest include craniofacial (extraocular, jaw-closing and laryngeal) muscles, limb skeletal muscles and cardiac muscle, with an emphasis on comparative muscle physiology and biochemistry.

• Abhay Satoskar, MD, PhD

  Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Pathology Research Interests: The mechanisms of immunity and immune evasion in parasitic diseases, particularly infections caused by kinetoplastid

• Scott Schricker, PhD

  Development of new polymers and monomers to improve dental materials and biomaterials.  Recent work has focused on improving traditional dental materials specifically glass-ionomer cements and maxillofacial prosthetics.  Development of nanostructured block copolymer surfaces to control protein and cellular interactions.

• John Sheridan, MS, PhD

  Interim Director, Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research Professor, Division of Biosciences Research Interests: Neuroendocrine regulation of inflammation, psychoneuroimmunology, neuroimmunology, stress biology, host repair of tissue damage, immunity to viral and bacterial challenges.

• Matthew Sullivan, PhD

  Our laboratory studies how ‘nanoscale’ viruses impact Earth’s ecosystems. While largely oceans-focused, our lab has pioneered many methods and informatics advances needed to “see” viruses in natural environments. This has led to global maps of the ‘virosphere’ and illuminating ‘viral dark matter’, numerous approaches to link and explore virus-host interactions, and realizations that viruses not only kill their microbial hosts, but also manipulate them in myriad subtler ways. This ‘oceans toolkit’ has revolutionized the study of viruses in nature and is now being applied throughout the global oceans, climate change soils, and to study myriad diseases in humans.

• Susan Travers, PhD

  Professor, Division of Biosciences Research Interests: Investigating how the central nervous system processes sensory signals arising from the mouth. The oral cavity is richly innervated and supplies the organism with information critical to regulating eating and drinking. Our focus is the sense of taste, but we also study oral tactile and thermal sensations because all these modalities interact to give rise to the complex experience of flavor.

• Susheela Tridandapani, PhD

  Professor, Department of Internal Medicine Research Interests: Examining the molecular mechanisms of innate immune responses to bacterial pathogens and IgG-immune complexes, particularly in the context of monoclonal antibody therapy for cancer.