Aghaloo Lab

Tara Aghaloo Lab
Photo of Tara Aghaloo

Principal Investigator:

Tara Aghaloo, D.D.S., M.D., Ph.D.

About

My laboratory focuses on hard and soft tissue regeneration and wound healing. We study healing and regeneration in both health and disease, at the basic, translational, and clinical levels. Our interests include developing and testing new strategies to regenerate bone in small defects (ie. extraction sockets) to larger maxillofacial defects (ie. mandibular marginal and segmental defects) to inflamed or infected defects (peri-implantitis, osteomyelitis, osteoradionecrosis). We have developed many pre-clinical models to test bone and soft tissue healing and regeneration, and continue to study new ways to improve healing and decrease the need for autogenous bone grafting. Our clinical research focus includes single and multi-center implant studies to evaluate immediate and delayed placement and loading, as well as new implant designs to facilitate immediate treatment and long-term esthetics and success. We also have clinical projects in progress to evaluate the diagnosis and management of patients with medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws (MRONJ) and other pathologies of bone remodeling, as well as several projects on tooth extractions, bone grafting, and implant surgery.

Current Projects and Grants

3/1/17 – 2/28/22
Straumann Clinical Research Grant, “Immediate placement of the Straumann bone level tapered implant with early loading in single tooth gaps in the maxilla and mandible compared to delayed placement”

2/1/17 – 12/31/20       
International Team for Implantology grant, Principal Investigator, “A novel implant design to evaluate primary stability and osseointegration”

5/1/20 – 4/30/21         
20204093. Osseointegration Foundation. Co-principal investigator (PI: Ansari). “A novel growth factor-free adhesive hydrogel delivery system for enhanced bone tissue engineering applications”

2/1/20 – 1/31/21         
U24 DE026914 NIDCR/NIH. Interdisciplinary Project Team Award Principal Investigator. Year 3 Funding. Center for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Tissue and Organ Regeneration (C-DOCTOR), “Stem cell-based therapies for bone regeneration around ailing dental implants”

1/1/20 – 12/31/20       
R56 DE029157 NIDCR/NIH. Co-investigator (PI: Li). “Therapeutic microneedles for localized treatment of periodontal tissues”

8/1/18 – 7/31/21         
Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation grant, co-Investigator (PI: Lee), “Enhanced biological activity of demineralized bone matrix with noggin suppression in polymer matrices.”

6/1/18 – 5/31/23         
R01 DE027322 NIDCR/NIH, co-Investigator (PI: Lee), “Tribbles homolog 3 and BMP-2 induce bone formation”

Publications

  • Fan J, Lee CS, Kim S, Chen C, Aghaloo T, Lee M. Generation of small RNA-modulated exosome mimetics for bone regeneration. ACS Nano 2020;14(9):11973-84.
  • Hasani-Sadrabadi MM, Sevari S, Li S, Ansari S, Aghaloo T, Moshaverinia A. An engineered cell-laden adhesive hydrogel promotes craniofacial bone tissue regeneration in rats. Science Transl Med 2020, epub ahead of print.
  • Hadaya D, Soundia A, Freymiller E, Tetradis S, Aghaloo T. Non-surgical management of MRONJ utilizing local wound care. J Oral Maxillofacial Surg, 2018;76(11):2332-2339.
  • Bouloux GF, Aghaloo T, Campbell JA, Chou J, Edwards SP, Kademani D, Reese DC, Cillo J, Dodson TB, Peacock Z. Proceedings from the Clinical and Scientific Innovations in OMS Conference 2019. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2020;78(3):327-334.
  • Aghaloo T, Pi-Anfruns J, Moshaverinia A, Sim D, Grogan T, Hadaya D. The effects of systemic diseases and medications on implant osseointegration. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants 2019 Suppl;34:s35-49.
  • Ghazal SS, Huynh-Ba G, Aghaloo T, Dibart S, Froum S, O’Neal R, Cochran D. A randomized, controlled, multicenter clinical study evaluating the crestal bone level change of SLActive bone level 3.3mm implants compared to SLActive bone level 4.1mm implants fo

Lab Members

Collaborators

List of collaborators within and outside of UCLA:

  • Sotirios Tetradis DDS, PhD

  • Min Lee, PhD

  • Alireza Moshaverinia, DDS, PhD

  • Song Li MD, PhD

  • Joan Pi-Anfruns, DDS

  • Peter Moy, DMD

  • Earl Freymiller, DMD

  • Maie St. John, MD, PhD

  • Sanjay Mallya, DDS, PhD

  • Benjamin Wu, DMD, PhD

  • David Elashoff, PhD

  • Gary Bouloux, DDS, MD

  • Yin Tintut, PhD

  • Sarah Dry, MD

  • Salvatore Ruggiero, DMD, MD

  • Laurie McCauley, DDS, PhD

  • Waldemar Polido, DDS

  • Dean Morton, DDS, MS

Opportunities

We welcome interest from trainees at all levels of experience and expertise. But, what we really want are people with passion and dedication to research. There is a time commitment, so please only contact us if you are serious about research. There will be a screening process including your cv, statement of goals for working in the laboratory, and your availability.

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