This federal Project Grant award of $460,885 was provided by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), to investigate how the fungal species Candida albicans interacts with the bacterial species Streptococcus mutans to enhance the formation and virulence of cariogenic biofilms. The research aims to gain a better mechanistic understanding of how these two microorganisms work together to initiate and...
This Project Grant, awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), will provide $205,000 to investigate the relationship between the oral microbiome and adverse outcomes in pediatric hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients. The project, titled "Effects of the Oral Microbiome on Adverse Outcomes of Pediatric Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation," aims to determine if oral microbes can translocate to the bloodstream of children undergoing HCT and...
This $645,988 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.121), will support research to explore the roles of bacteriophages (phages) in the oral microbiome and their potential as a therapy for dental caries. The multi-year project aims to leverage computational analysis of metagenomic/metatranscriptomic sequencing data to define the composition, abundance, and...
The Project Grant award of $597,807 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research (CFDA 93.121) program, will support the establishment of a novel 13C-labeled metabolite library for the study of dental caries. Specifically, the project aims to: Create a 13C-labeled oral bacterial metabolite reference library for Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus gordonii using SWATH LC-MS, with dual peaks identified and curated to...
This federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), aims to develop an integrated dental plaque bioanalytical platform for point-of-care diagnostics of oral diseases. The $422,665 award to Oregon State University will support the detection and quantification of hydrogen peroxide and lactate produced by oral bacteria to establish threshold values for early detection...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), will advance the understanding of the genomic basis for oral diseases such as dental caries and periodontitis. The $673,091 award to the University of Pittsburgh will support the formation of a research consortium of over 800,000 participants across 27 studies. The key activities include: Conducting the largest genome-wide...
This $511,706 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), will fund a 3-year study to determine whether frequent standardized oral care using human milk can reduce oral and intestinal inflammation and microbial dysbiosis in preterm very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. The study will analyze previously collected oral and stool samples from 168 racially diverse preterm VLBW...
This $398,000 project grant, awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), will support mechanistic investigations into the interactions between three key bacterial species - Fusobacterium nucleatum, Actinomyces spp., and Saccharibacteria (TM7) - and their impact on periodontal inflammation during clear aligner orthodontic treatment. The research will focus on elucidating the synergistic...
The University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. was awarded a $467,008 Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), to develop a novel non-invasive treatment for dental caries in children and patients with special needs. The project aims to create a biomimetic peptide-polymer interface that works synergistically with silver diamine fluoride (SDF) to arrest caries progression and...
This federal Project Grant award of $163,411 from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), supports research to characterize the relationship and nutritional interactions between Streptococcus mutans, a primary driver of dental caries, and other commensal oral streptococcal species. The research aims to understand how these microorganisms form structured biofilm communities and partition nutrient...
INVESTIGATING THE MICROBIAL BASIS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES VIA INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF METAGENOMICS METATRANSCRIPTOMICS AND METABOLOMICS - THE INCREASING AVAILABILITY AND SCALE OF OMICS DATA HAVE REVOLUTIONIZED OUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES UNDERLYING HEALTH AND DISEASE. SUCH BIOLOGICALLY INFORMED INSIGHTS ARE ALIGNED WITH THE NOTION OF PRECISION MEDICINE AND HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO IMPROVE DIAGNOSES, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT. IN THE ORAL HEALTH DOMAIN, MULTIPLE OMICS DATA LAYERS (E.G., GENOMICS, METAGENOMICS, TRANSCRIPTOMICS, METABOLOMICS), INTENDED TO CAPTURE ASPECTS OF OTHERWISE UNOBSERVABLE BIOLOGY, ARE INCREASINGLY BEING COLLECTED IN ORAL HEALTH STUDIES. HOWEVER, METHODS FOR POWERFUL AND INFORMATIVE INTEGRATION OF INFORMATION GAINED FROM THESE MULTIPLE DATA LAYERS REMAINS ELUSIVE. THE FOCUS OF THIS PROPOSAL, EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES (ECC), IS THE MOST COMMON NON-COMMUNICABLE CHILDHOOD DISEASE. ECC IS DEFINED AS DENTAL DECAY IN CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 6. IT REMAINS A CLINICAL AND DENTAL PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM AND CONFERS SUBSTANTIAL AND MULTI-LEVEL HUMAN AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS. THE ADVENT OF PRECISION ORAL HEALTH CARE, BASED UPON A NEW, MICROBIALLY-INFORMED UNDERSTANDING OF ECC, IS EXPECTED TO SHED LIGHT ONTO MECHANISTIC ASPECTS OF THE DISEASE PROCESSES AND REVEAL NEW WAYS TO PREVENT IT. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP NEW STATISTICAL METHODS AND MACHINE LEARNING (ML) STRATEGIES THAT HANDLE HIGH DIMENSIONALITY AND EXCESS ZEROS IN COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATIVE ANALYSES OF METAGENOMICS (MTG), METATRANSCRIPTOMICS (MTX), AND METABOLOMICS (MTB) AND APPLY THEM TO CHARACTERIZE THE ECC-RELATED SUPRAGINGIVAL BIOFILM DYSBIOSES, BIOCHEMICAL ACTIVITIES, AND THEIR INTERACTIONS IN A COMMUNITY-BASED SAMPLE OF 300 PRESCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN, ENROLLED IN A LARGE-SCALE INVESTIGATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD ORAL HEALTH IN NORTH CAROLINA. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP STATISTICAL METHODS TO JOINTLY IDENTIFY REGULATORY MODULES ACROSS MTG, MTX, AND MTB ASSOCIATED WITH ECC. FURTHERMORE, WE SEEK TO DEVELOP INTERPRETABLE MACHINE LEARNING APPROACHES TO PREDICT BINARY (E.G., CASE STATUS) OR QUANTITATIVE ECC EXPERIENCE (E.G., DMFS INDEX) USING MTG, MTX, AND/OR MTB. WE ANTICIPATE THAT OUR STUDY WILL PROVIDE NOVEL INSIGHTS INTO THE MICROBIAL BASIS OF ECC, IDENTIFY MICROBIAL AND BIOCHEMICAL DISEASE BIOMARKERS, HIGHLIGHT POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR PREVENTION AND TREATMENT, AND ESTABLISH A POWERFUL RESEARCH PLATFORM THAT CAN BE EXTENDED TO CHARACTERIZE OTHER MICROBIOME-RELATED DISEASES.