This $163,411 Project Grant was awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research (CFDA 93.121) federal grant program. The project aims to investigate how interactions between health-associated and disease-causing oral bacteria affect carbohydrate utilization preferences and drive changes in the oral microbiome that can lead to dental caries. The research objectives include: 1) explicating nutritional niches between health- and disease-associated oral bacteria, 2) exploiting these niches to alter microbial ecology through oral streptococci interactions, and 3) elucidating partitioning of the oral microbiome by specific carbohydrate utilization preferences. The research will utilize functionalized carbohydrates and single-cell analysis via super-resolution microscopy to validate transcriptomic findings and engineer genetic mutants to ultimately develop prebiotic/probiotic or other therapeutic interventions to selectively remove caries-causing bacteria while preserving beneficial oral commensal species. The project will be conducted at The Ohio State University from March 2025 through February 2027.
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