Alvarez Lab

Carla Alvarez Rivas, PhD, DDS, BDS, is an assistant professor and principal investigator in the Department of Oral Biology at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine. Her research program centers on T cell biology, with a particular emphasis on CD4⁺ T cell memory in the context of periodontal disease. Her work integrates in vivo models and clinical studies with high-resolution T cell and TCR profiling approaches.

Dr. Alvarez Rivas earned her DDS and PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Chile. She completed her postdoctoral training at the ADA Forsyth Institute and has now launched her independent laboratory, funded by the NIDCR.

The Alvarez Lab investigates why periodontal disease (PD) so often returns after apparent recovery, focusing on the long-term immune cells that persist in gingival tissues and may drive relapse. Using a newly characterized murine model of recurrent PD and advanced methods for enriching and profiling gingival T cells, we define a clinically relevant “recovered baseline” and examine how repeated cycles of inflammation and resolution reshape the periodontal immune network over time. Central to our work is the hypothesis that PD induces the generation and persistence of pathogenic CD4⁺ T memory (TM) cell subsets — particularly tissue-resident memory cells — that can rapidly respond to microbial antigens and promote bone loss during recurrence, even when circulating immune infiltration is restricted. Through spatiotemporal mapping, transcriptomic and functional characterization of CD4⁺ TM subsets, and development of targeted metabolic strategies to deplete pathogenic memory cells while enhancing immune regulation, our research aims to uncover the cellular mechanisms underlying PD recurrence and to identify therapeutic strategies that prevent relapse and improve long-term oral health outcomes.

• Apoorva Shama, MS, bioinformatician
• Valentina Olmedo, DDS, research scholar

1. Clonal and Spatial Immune Mapping in Human (CTSI Pilot): Preclinical study using human samples to analyze the spatial and clonal distribution of memory T cells in Periodontitis.
2. The Role of CD4+ Memory T Cell Subtypes in Periodontal Disease Recurrence (NIDCR/R00). This project investigates how CD4⁺ T memory cells that persist in gingival tissues drive periodontal disease recurrence and accelerated bone loss after recovery. Using a murine model of recurrent PD, it maps the development and pathogenic programming of these memory subsets and tests metabolic strategies to selectively deplete them to prevent relapse.

Email the Alvarez Lab: carlaalv@buffalo.edu.