Research

A new era of discovery is underway at the UCLA School of Dentistry with the appointment of Dr. Yvonne Hernandez-Kapila as associate dean for research and the Felix and Mildred Yip Endowed Chair.

Beginning her UCLA tenure in May 2022, Dr. Hernandez-Kapila oversees a robust research program with more than $21M in contracts and grants awarded last fiscal year, with approximately 50 active initiatives at any given time.

A paper published in the January 17, 2022 online edition of the Journal of Immunology focuses on saliva COVID-19 antibody testing. The paper, "The Kinetics of COVID-19 Vaccine Response in a Community-Vaccinated Population," was selected as an Editor’s Choice. Authors include Michael K. Tu, Samantha H. Chiang, Richard A. Bender, David T. W. Wong and Charles M. Strom.

Ten active faculty members from the UCLA School of Dentistry were identified as Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in their world scientist rankings.They include Drs. David Wong, Cun-Yu Wang, Paul Krebsbach, Shane White, Kathryn Atchison, Francisco Ramos-Gomez, and Diana Messadi, as well as three faculty members from the Division of Advanced Prosthodontics and Weintraub Center: Drs. Ben Wu, Ichiro Nishimura, and Takahiro Ogawa.

Jordan Cheng, DMD, a graduate trainee in the Oral Biology Ph.D. program at the UCLA School of Dentistry, was recently awarded the National Cancer Institute’s Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00). The F99/K00 award is to support and retain outstanding graduate students recognized by their institutions for their high potential and strong interest in pursuing careers as independent cancer researchers. The award will facilitate the transition of trainees from their graduate training to postdoctoral appointments at high-impact cancer labs.

Research on mouse models targets new ‘checkpoint’ that enables cancer stem cells to evade immune system

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have discovered a key molecule that allows cancer stem cells to bypass the body’s natural immune defenses, spurring the growth and spread of head and neck squamous cell cancers. Their study, conducted in mice, also demonstrates that inhibiting this molecule derails cancer progression and helps eliminate these stem cells.  

UCLA discovery opens a pathway toward the discovery more effective treatments

By targeting an enzyme that plays a key role in head and neck cancer cells, researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry were able to significantly slow the growth and spread of tumors in mice and enhance the effectiveness of an immunotherapy to which these types of cancers often become resistant.

By identifying the underlying factors leading to bone loss and osteoporosis, UCLA dentist-scientists hope to pave the way to new treatments

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have identified the role a critical enzyme plays in skeletal aging and bone loss, putting them one step closer to understanding the complex biological mechanisms that lead to osteoporosis, the bone disease that afflicts some 200 million people worldwide.

Study to focus on using saliva in the analysis of cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to accurately and non-invasively detect non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Author: Stuart Wolpert

UCLA has been awarded a grant of more than $1.6 million from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, a division of the National Institutes of Health. The five-year grant will enable UCLA to expand its Bruins-in-Genomics Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which brings undergraduates from across the country, including from historically Black colleges and universities, to UCLA to conduct research and learn the latest data analysis techniques and skills.

Making Saliva a Serious Business

“Most people are surprised when I tell them that saliva can reveal as much, if not more, than blood or urine can. We have made it our mission to make saliva testing a clinical reality to detect for serious diseases. And we’re getting very, very close.”