Reconstructive Biotechnology

We investigate the pathological mechanism of oral rare diseases and develop new therapeutic modalities. We use small animal models of rare diseases for mechanistic investigations and biotechnology and nanotechnology for therapeutic applications.

Our recent translational research on osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), a rare but severe oral manifestation of anti-resorptive medications, resulted in the successful development of novel compounds to prevent bisphosphonate-related ONJ. The current project is determining the therapeutic effectiveness of our compound therapy in the mouse ONJ model and developing a viable drug formulation for topical application to the oral mucosa and gingiva. After biocomparative studies, we plan to proceed the FDA application for patient treatment.

Separately, we have been investigating the role of circadian rhythm on tissue regeneration, which identified a target clock gene. The knockout mutation of the target clock gene resulted in no significant mutation; but when injured such as tooth extraction, skin punch wounding or calvarial critical bone defect formation, the robust increase of regeneration in respective tissues was observed. Furthermore, High throughput screening of drug compounds has identified a group of small compounds that can modulate the target clock gene. The application of these compounds to the wounded tissues showed promising therapeutic effect of wound healing and tissue regeneration. Our current studies ask the mechanism of circadian rhythm-dependent tissue regeneration.