MODULATION OF NATURAL DEFENSE IN ORAL DISEASE DRI

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The primary goal of the RCOB at State University of New York at Buffalo is to expand the scientific base that underlies the nation's capability to prevent and control oral diseases and disorders and to improve oral health. Our scientific expertise and facilities were greatly expanded during the previous granting period through a combination of RCOB and University resources. This enables RCOB scientists to address scientific problems in an integrated fashion using protein chemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, immunology, microbiology and cell biology. The secondary goal of the RCOB is to maintain a center of excellence that will attract investigators of high quality to dental research, continue our long- standing tradition of research training at all levels of career development, and serve as a focal point to encourage productive research- related collaborations with other institutions. The Center uses the combined efforts of a team of dentist-scientists, microbiologists, biochemists, biophysicists, molecular biologists and cell biologists from both the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Additionally, scientists from Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University of Minnesota have joined the Center to augment research efforts. Projects 1, 2 and 3 propose to enhance the protective qualities of saliva by the design and development of salivary substitutes to combat plaque mediated disease in subjects with normal salivary flow as well as those with xerostomia. A multidisciplinary approach involving protein chemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and bioengineering will design and synthesize salivary substances with enhanced functions relating to bacterial clearance/adherence mechanisms and lubrication. Projects 4, 5 and 8 are designed to characterize virulence factors of Porphyromonas gingivalis that might be determinants of disease and to study the immunochemical, biochemical and molecular biological mechanisms by which these factors are expressed and subsequently modulated. Studies will focus on the role of fimbriae in adhesion and outer membrane proteins in bacterial coaggregation and iron regulation.