Research Areas

Oral Biology has strengths in understanding how the oral mucosa remembers, overreacts, and fails to reset after infection or injury. Our faculty have expertise in adaptive memory T cells, innate phagocyte biology, Sjögren's disease, myeloid-driven periodontal inflammation, oral fungal immunity, and salivary-gland inflammatory circuits. 

Oral microbes shape disease beyond the mouth. Our faculty investigate how oral microbial communities assemble, adapt, and influence health locally and systemically. This includes oral microbiome ecology, bacteriophage biology, polymicrobial biofilms, host-microbe signaling, microbial signatures of health, gingivitis and periodontitis, and the role of oral microorganisms in systemic disease. 

Our faculty seek to understand saliva and glandular biology as active regulators of health, microbial attachment and disease resilience. We study salivary proteins, microbial adhesion, salivary gland development and dysfunction, mucosal defense molecules, and tissue responses to inflammation and injury. We focus on inflammatory mechanisms of salivary-gland dysfunction, epithelial and salivary gland development and regeneration and salivary antimicrobial peptides and mucins.

Faculty in this area investigate building, repairing and reprogramming oral and craniofacial tissues. Research spans stem and progenitor cell biology, salivary gland and craniofacial development, bone regeneration, wound healing, and regenerative medicine strategies, including photobiomodulation and smart biomaterials.

This area centers on oral and head and neck cancer biology, with emphasis on tumor heterogeneity, inflammation, oral mucositis, treatment resistance, and translational therapeutic approaches. Faculty are advancing new strategies to decode oral/head-and-neck cancer heterogeneity to improve prevention, treatment response, survivorship and clinical outcomes.

This area brings together faculty developing biomaterials, bioactive surfaces, antimicrobial therapeutics, and tissue-repair strategies for oral applications. Research includes regenerative hydrogels, smart biomaterials, microbial interactions with oral surfaces, and translational approaches to healing and disease prevention.