Methods for Investigating Disease and Repair in Teeth and Alveolar Bone

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Ozge Erdogan

Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Dr. Ozge Erdogan graduated from Yeditepe University Dental School in Istanbul, Turkey, and completed her endodontic (root canals) residency at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. She then worked as a full-time instructor at NYU College of Dentistry in New York, NY. To better understand the underlying mechanisms of dental pain and inflammation, she pursued doctoral training and received her doctor of medical sciences (DMSc) degree at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, MA. Dr. Erdogan is a research fellow in Dr. Jennifer Gibbs’s lab at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, MA. Dr. Erdogan investigates pain and pathological outcomes of neuronal-immune interactions in dental pulp inflammation/infection.

Emily Moore

Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Dr. Emily Moore received her BS/MS in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University in New York, NY. Dr. Moore is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Vicki Rosen’s lab at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, MA. Dr. Moore’s research has focused on bone and periosteal cell behavior in skeletal development, mechanical loading, and repair. She recently extended her expertise to cells involved in dental and craniofacial development and repair.

Collection Overview

In recent decades, significant advances have been made in understanding mechanisms modulating dental disease and repair. However, experimental tools still need to be improved, especially in comparison to other tissue research fields. In this Methods Collection, we strive to shed light on the growing availability of in vitro and in vivo models and techniques developed to further our understanding of tooth maintenance and the molecular and cellular responses to disease and injury.

Examples include, but are not limited to, the isolation of primary dental cells or tissues, cell co-culture systems, novel imaging strategies, and surgical techniques in animal models. Dental tissues have unique interfaces with surrounding tissues and the oral microbiome. Therefore, experimental methods to study periodontium and the microbiome concerning dental disease and repair will also be considered for this collection. We hope that making these protocols more widely available to the dental research community will facilitate the creation of even more investigative tools and accelerate progress in an exciting, growing field.