Urease Activity and Dental Caries in Children

描述：在这次修订的K23奖项申请中，候选人接受过儿科牙科的临床研究生培训，以及微生物学和龋齿方面的博士水平研究培训。获奖申请的目的是为候选人提供以患者为导向的研究方面的多学科培训，这将有助于她设计和进行与儿童龋齿风险的生物学预测因素有关的转化性研究。 这项提议的职业发展计划包括一个多学科计划，其中包括负责任的研究、流行病学、生物统计学和临床研究设计等方面的培训。该计划还包括一些活动，这些活动将在整个获奖期内提供更多的临床研究实践经验和分子生物学方面的持续培训。 本应用程序的研究部分包括一项临床和基础研究相结合的研究，旨在解决细菌尿素酶活性在儿童龋齿发展中的作用。牙菌斑中的细菌尿素酶活性会产生氨，这种氨被认为可以抑制龋齿的发展，也可以影响口腔微生物生态。如果这些关系能够被证明，未来的研究可能会导致开发新的方法来评估和预防龋齿风险。 主要的导师是奥古斯托·埃利亚斯博士，他是UPR牙科学院研究办公室的教授和主任。Elias博士作为导师、全球龋齿研究的参考检查员以及波多黎各许多企业赞助的牙科临床试验和患病率研究的首席研究员，拥有丰富的经验。埃利亚斯博士将与罗纳德·比林斯博士(罗纳德·比林斯博士(罗切斯特大学)和罗伯特·伯恩博士(佛罗里达大学))一起担任导师，他们将分别为这项研究的临床和基础科学部分提供专家建议和技术支持。生物统计学教授Erick Suarez博士将指导候选人研究设计方法和数据分析。

DESCRIPTION: The Candidate in this revised application for a K23 Award has graduate clinical training in Pediatric Dentistry and PhD level research training in Microbiology and in Cariology. The purpose of the requested Award is to provide the candidate with multidisciplinary training in patient-oriented research, which will help her design and conduct translational studies related to biological predictors of caries risk in children. The Career Development Plan of this proposal consists of a multidisciplinary program, which includes training in the responsible conduct of research, epidemiology, biostatistics and clinical research design, among others. The plan also includes a number of activities that will provide additional hands-on experience in clinical research and continuous training in molecular biology throughout the Award period. The Research component of this application consists of a combined clinical and basic research study, which aims to address the role bacterial urease activity in the development of dental caries in children. Bacterial urease activity in dental plaque generates ammonia, which is believed to inhibit the development of dental caries, and which can also influence the oral microbial ecology. If these relationships can be demonstrated, future studies could lead to the development of novel methods for caries risk assessment and prevention. The primary mentor is Dr. Augusto Elias, Professor and Director of the Research Office in the UPR School of Dentistry. Dr. Elias has extensive experience as a mentor, as a reference examiner in caries studies worldwide, and as the principal investigator of numerous corporate-sponsored dental clinical trials and prevalence studies in Puerto Rico. Dr. Elias will be joined in his role as a mentor by two co-mentors, Dr. Ronald Billings (University of Rochester) and Dr. Robert Burne (University of Florida) who will provide expert advice and technical support to the clinical and the basic science portion of the study, respectively. Dr. Erick Suarez, Professor in Biostatistics, will guide the candidate in study design methodology and in the analysis of the data.