Oral Biology PhD Program Faculty
In alignment with the institutional goals, scientific research is the most prominent activity of the faculty in the Division of Biosciences. Within the past few years, the volume and scope of research in the section has increased greatly. All faculty have substantial external funding, and a major NIH-funded training grant for dental, graduate, and post-doctoral students and junior faculty. The myriad of ongoing multidisciplinary research programs focus on: Molecular and Cellular Biology, inflammation and Immunity, Developmental Biology, Chemical Senses, Musculoskeletal Biology, Microbiology, and Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. The broad range of projects provided ample opportunities for scientific collaborations among faculty as well as offer opportunities for scientific collaborations among faculty as well as offer opportunities for graduate and post-doctoral students to obtain versatile training in modern approaches to biology.
Michael Bailey, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Division of Biosciences
College of Medicine
Studies in Dr. Bailey's laboratory focus on determining the impact that the intestinal microbiota have on the local mucosal immune system, and on immune reactivity at systemic sites, particularly during periods of psychological stress. In past studies, they have shown that exposure to different types of psychological stressors change the community structure of microbiota in the intestines. Their goal now is to demonstrate that these changes have significant effects on the health of the host.
Prosper Boyaka, PhD
Professor, Department of Biosciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
Currently, my research interests focus on the regulation of immunity and inflammation in mucosal surfaces. We also investigate means to utilize mucosal surfaces for provision of immunity against infectious diseases and strategies to control mucosal pathologies such as allergic reactions. For this purpose, we study adjuvants that could be used in mucosal vaccines to induce both mucosal and systemic immunity. Regulation of mucosal immunity by cytokines/chemokines and other innate factors represent the other major area of our research.
Xi Chen DDS, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Dental Public Health
College of Dentistry
My research focuses on end-of-life dental care, oral health management for older adults with dementia, quality of care and clinical decision making for medically compromised elderly patients, and community-based oral health intervention for older adults with special needs.
James Cray Jr., PhD
Professor, Division of Anatomy
College of Medicine
Craniofacial birth defects and craniofacial bone wound healing, with a focus on gene/environment interactions that lead to a common craniofacial birth defect, craniosynostosis.
Tammy Duangthip, DDS, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Dental Public Health
College of Dentistry
Our research group investigates caries prevention and management, topical fluorides, community dental services through clinical, behavioral, and translational research to improve oral health in children and underserved populations.
Brian L. Foster, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
I study the molecular biology of tooth root development and mineralization, with interests including genes, mechanisms, diseases, and novel regeneration strategies.
Justin Kaspar, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
Dr. Kaspar's research interests center on the microbial interactions that occur within the human oral cavity. Specifically, the lab is exploring physical contact-dependent interactions between early colonizers of supragingival biofilm communities and pathogens such as Streptococcus mutans that drive sequential changes within the microbiome during initial colonization and subsequent biofilm formation.
Do-Gyoon Kim, PhD
Professor, Division of Orthodontics
College of Dentistry
Dr. Kim's research interest entails Mechanobiology of Bone-Implant Interface, Tissue-Biomaterial Interactions, Bone Tissue Engineering, Mechanics of Total Joint Replacement, Micromechanics of Dental Implant Interface, Spine Mechanics, Computational Biomechanics, and Mechanics of Tooth Movement.
Ching-Chang Ko, DDS, MS, PhD
Professor, Division of Orthodontics
College of Dentistry
Bone diseases that affect dental health, biomaterials for bone cell regeneration, biomimetic bone cements for dental implants, and nanocomposite scaffolds for TMJ-related tissue engineering.
Binnaz Leblebiciooglu, DDS, MS, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Periodontology
College of Dentistry
Currently, my primary research interest is to investigate the possible mechanisms involved in delayed type mucosal wound healing. I collaborate with Oral Biology Division and Comprehensive Wound Center at OSU. We conduct both clinical and basic science research. I am also conducting several clinical research projects related to treatment outcome following implant placement surgery. We investigate early healing process at periodontal/peri-implant tissues. We combine clinical documentation with various molecular biology methods to evaluate different phases of healing.
Beth Lee, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Cell Biology
College of Medicine
Skeletal and renal biology. Most recently, major projects are focused on the role of cytoskeletal proteins in regulating the function of cells responsible for the formation and maintenance of bone, the osteoblasts and osteoclasts. The use of mouse genetic models, coupled with a variety of cell biology techniques, allows us to determine the function of cytoskeletal proteins in skeletal growth and health.
Kyulim Lee, DMD, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Dentistry
College of Dentistry
Microbial impacts on oral health and disease, bacterial genetics/genomics and microbial ecology in the context of human health and disease, the oral microbiome in pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant.
Miaomiao Li, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
Dr. Li's research mainly focuses on understanding the role of heparan sulfate in bone health and inflammation, with the goal to develop novel therapy towards osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis. Heparan sulfate is an essential polysaccharide universally expressed at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix. By interacting with hundreds of proteins, heparan sulfate plays significant roles in human health and disease, which makes it represent a class of biomolecule of great pharmaceutical interests. Dr. Li has extensive experience studying how heparan sulfate works with specific proteins like osteoprotegerin, RAGE, and sclerostin, which are important for bone health and inflammation. The long-term goal of the Li lab is to use this knowledge to develop new treatments that can target heparan sulfate–protein interactions and help treat bone and inflammatory diseases.
Qin Ma, PhD
Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
College of Arts and Sciences
My research career has been driven by a relentless pursuit of innovation, particularly in decoding the functional machinery embedded within genomes and unraveling the regulatory mechanisms underpinning complex diseases. Central to my approach has been the development of advanced computational methods that leverage high-throughput Omics data, particularly in single-cell and spatial sequencing analyses.
Susan Mallery, DDS, PhD
Professor, Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
College of Dentistry
Clinical Interests: Oral pathology, Research Interests: Oral cancer initiation; AIDS-related oral cancer; chemoprevention
Luiz Meirelles, DDS, MS, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry
College of Dentistry
Dr. Meirelles’ work focuses on developing novel approaches to enhance oral and craniofacial tissue characterization using intraoral imaging, biomechanics, and software analytics. His research includes the creation of high-precision diagnostic tools with applications in dental implants, periodontics, and prosthodontics. Our group bridges clinical needs with innovative, reproducible proprietary technologies to improve oral health outcomes.
Sarah Peters, MS, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
I am interested in how peptidergic neurons communicate with dental pulp stem cells during early postnatal development to create a sensory tooth. I'm similarly interested in how an injury affects this communication in an adult tooth to help maintain and repair the tooth organ.
Heather Powell, PhD
Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Material Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Biomaterials and tissue engineering. Her lab studies skin and is interested in developing technologies that can help heal large burn injuries in pediatric and adult patients to reduce scarring post injury and improve the quality of life for these patients. The lab also works on bone regeneration to replace diseased or damaged limbs.
Leah Pyter, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
College of Medicine
Cancer behavioral comorbidities; endocrinology; and microbiome. The lab uses rodent models of cancer to study the immune-mediated effects of cancer on behavior and tissue repair.
Peter Reiser, PhD
Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
My research is focused on the roles of sarcomeric protein isoforms in regulating contractile properties of muscle. Specific areas of interest include craniofacial (extraocular, jaw-closing and laryngeal) muscles, limb skeletal muscles and cardiac muscle, with an emphasis on comparative muscle physiology and biochemistry. The approach is based primarily on analyses of contractile properties and protein composition of single, isolated muscle cells.
Abhay Satoskar, MD, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair, Experimental Pathology
Wexner Medical Center
Dr. Satoskar’s research focuses on studying how cytokines regulate innate and acquired immune responses during infection and determining the strategies used by the parasite Leishmania to evade host immunity. The Laboratory uses murine model as well as variety of in vitro experimental approaches for these studies. Another area of interest in the laboratory is developing a vaccine against Leishmania by identifying and characterizing possible candidate antigens and optimizing effective vaccination strategies for them. Finally, a relatively new direction of the laboratory involves studying immune mechanisms that determine the outcome of a bioterror agent Francisella.
Hillery C. Schiff, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Biosciences
College of Dentistry
The Schiff research program focuses on postnatal development of the neural circuits that underlie taste-based behaviors such as sensation, perception, reward, and feeding. They examine maturation of inhibitory neurons and synaptic transmission, plasticity, and microcircuitry in the cortical sensory region for taste, the gustatory cortex. They are also interested in the mechanisms by which taste and nutrient-sensing modulate one another in the presence or absence of sensory and food experience. They are particularly interested in how these processes shape taste preferences, especially for sugar and other sweet tastes. In the lab, They use patch clamp electrophysiology, animal behavior, neural tracing, and fiber photometry imaging to probe these questions.
Scott Schricker, PhD
Associate Professor, Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry
College of Dentistry
My research involves developing new polymeric materials for traditional dental materials and tissue engineering scaffolds. Projects involves synthesizing new materials, using cell culture to evaluate cell-material interactions and characterization of dental materials.
Robert Seghi, DDS, MS
Professor, Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry
College of Dentistry
My research is focused on Dental Ceramics - Modeling and Laboratory Simulation of All-Ceramic Failure Mechanisms Optical and mechanical property evaluations of ceramic materials.
Dental Polymers/Ceramic Composites - Simulated wear characteristics of dental composites. New nanoparticulate reinforced polymers for dental applications. Polymerization shrinkage stress and strain of dental composite systems.
Dental Adhesion - Issues related to the bonding of materials to enamel and dentin.
Zongyang Sun, DDS, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Orthodontics
College of Dentistry
Dr. Sun's research interest is in the field of craniofacial growth and adaptation in response to mechanical loading. His research involves cranial sutures, mandibular osteodistraction sites, craniofacial periosteum and the dental alveolus.
Loren Wold, PhD
Professor, Department of Surgery
College of Medicine
External triggers of cardiac disease, with emphasis on air pollution exposure and electronic cigarette exposure.