Grants and Publications

Severe periodontal disease, also known as gum disease, can result in bone loss surrounding teeth. Bone grafts have traditionally served as a treatment for this problem, and research at ADA Forsyth could improve the efficacy of bone grafts.

The project, led in part by AFI’s VP of Clinical and Translational Research Dr. Thomas Van Dyke, involves creating customized bone grafts that regenerate bone more effectively than present treatments by including medicines that control inflammation.

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Scientists are aware of many unnamed, unstudied microorganisms known as “microbial dark matter.” These known-but-unknown microbes haven’t been studied closely because they haven’t been cultured in a laboratory.

One such species, TM7 or Saccaribacteria, was uncovered by Dr. Xuesong He in his lab in 2015. TM7 is part of a newly identified group of bacteria called Patescibacteria, also known as Candidate Phyla Radiation, which has been estimated to make up a quarter or even half of all bacterial diversity in the world.

Dr. Batbileg Bor continues to explore TM7 with Dr. He, illuminating key information about how Saccharibacteria interacts with its host bacterium and human cells.

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One of the most notorious pathogens on the radars of dentists and periodontists is Porphyromonas gingivalis, or P. gingivalis. This pathogen, known as a major agent of periodontitis, tricks human cells, taking them over to create conditions that allow periodontitis to progress. 

Mary Ellen Davey, Professor at the ADA Forsyth Institute, has dedicated over a decade of her career exploring this pathogen and its interactions within the oral microbiome. 

In particular, Dr. Davey has been studying the impact of arginine on Porphyromonas. Arginine is an amino acid that helps the body build proteins. It is also critical for the immune system to fight off infections.  For this reason, it is manipulated by many pathogens to gain a foothold in their human host.

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ADA Forsyth scientists Jessica Mark Welch and Gary Borisy, along with their colleague Alex Valm at MBL, pioneered the field of imaging in microbiology, developing the first technology (called CLASI-FISH) able to capture images of bacteria with enough detail to identify spatial relationships within the communities living in the oral microbiome. Now they are taking this technology to the next level, developing a method of imaging that can capture live samples over time. “This is super exciting because they will be moving so that we can see them grow and figure out which bacteria are growing and how fast they are growing relative to where they are,” said Jessica Mark Welch, the PI on the project.

NIDCR has awarded the prestigious K99/R00 career transition award to ADA Forsyth researcher Ning Yu for her periodontal research. Dr. Yu studies how the body’s early immune defense system influences the oral microbiome in a mouse model of periodontitis.

Working with a special mouse strain that resolves inflammation by engaging the specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) pathways, Dr. Yu and her team will explore how a healthy immune system protects the body from gum disease by promoting a healthy oral microbiome, with the goal of applying those lessons to future therapeutic interventions.

Published in: Microbiome

The new study finds that oral Klebsiella, a dangerous and multidrug resistant pathogen, thrives in nutrition deprived oral polymicrobial communities, which can often found in hospital settings. When in these “starvation environments, Klebsiella quickly dominates the community, feeding off the other bacteria that die quickly when deprived of nutrition. Klebsiella is one of the top three pathogens responsible for HAIs, including pneumonia, bacteremia and UTI. The groundbreaking research conducted by AFI scientists offers new insights into the transmission and spread of hospital-acquired infections, shedding light on why they are so difficult to combat and paving the way for more effective prevention and treatment strategies.

Press Release

Published in: Current Research in Microbial Sciences

Porphyromonas gingivalis uses various mechanisms to actively interact with and promote the hydrolysis of red blood cells (RBCs) to obtain iron in the form of heme. The study found that RBCs elicit aggregate and matrix formation of P. gingivalis and that this process is promoted by an OMV-specific lipoprotein. This is particularly significant because the results support the idea that RBCs can serve as a transport vehicle for P. gingivalis aggregates, aiding in their systemic spread from the oral cavity.