On Demand Removal of Oral Biofilms via Photresponsive Coatings

候选人：德瓦塔·P·奈尔博士，助理教授，该学院材料科学研究员 科罗拉多大学安舒茨医学院牙医学系。奈尔博士的K25应用程序建议 设计一种光响应型涂层，使口腔生物膜能够按需从口腔表面去除 复合修复材料，同时保持基础材料的美学和功能方面。 她的直接目标是获得必要的研究、培训和专业技能，以过渡到 独立调查员。她的长期目标是发展一项独立的、由外部资助的研究 计划通过成为一名成功、有效的终身教职教师来实现，他们可以完全接触牙科学生和 通过在牙科生物材料领域的教学和研究活动。 职业发展计划：奈尔博士的职业发展培训包括：1)获得新的 实验技能和方法，以加强她的研究计划。2)培养、分析方面的进一步培训 以及在各种静态和流动反应器中对口腔生物膜进行成像。3)专业技能精细化 发展，包括正式的课程工作，出席和在大学周刊俱乐部的演讲 研讨会，国家科学会议，以及与牙科生物材料杂志俱乐部的定期会议 (周刊)；部门免疫学和微生物学系列研讨会(星期五系列研讨会--每周)；和4)至 与她的指导团队定期互动。 环境：奈尔博士培训计划的环境将非常出色。这位主要的导师，Dr。 杰弗里·斯坦斯伯里是国际公认的美国国立卫生研究院资助的科学家。与共同导师舒尔博士和 二级导师Pfeifer博士和Zajdowicz博士以及咨询导师Jack Ferracane博士，一位强大的 生物医学研究的学科指导团队已经组建完毕。此外，来自专家的定期投入 例如Michael Franklin博士(蒙大拿州立大学生物膜工程中心)和Noel Clark博士 (加州大学博尔德分校软物质材料研究中心主任)将确保Nair博士能够访问 在她的研究项目和整体培训计划的关键领域具有特定的专业知识。 研究：越来越需要制定战略来理解和破坏增长和 牙科生物膜滞留可导致继发性龋齿和一系列全身疾病，如吸入 肺炎、心血管疾病和妊娠期并发症。这项提案旨在发展 防治生物膜生长和防止龋齿恶化的战略。工作的前提是 去除口腔生物膜的长期和有效的解决方案依赖于动态的、对光敏感的 可以反复有效地破坏口腔生物膜附着的涂层，该提案旨在开发照片- 修复剂表面的响应性涂层，可反复且可靠地物理调用 破坏和赶走生物膜。

CANDIDATE: Devatha P. Nair, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and a materials science researcher in the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Nair’s K25 application proposes to engineer a photo-responsive coating that can enable ‘on-demand’ oral biofilm removal from the surface of a composite restorative material while maintaining the aesthetic and functional aspects of the underlying material. Her immediate goal is to acquire the research training and professional skills necessary to transition to an independent investigator. Her long-term goal is to develop an independent, extramurally funded research program by becoming a successful, effective tenure-track faculty who can fully engage with dental students and residents through teaching and research activities in the field of dental biomaterials. CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN: Dr. Nair’s career development training consists of: 1) acquiring new experimental skills and approaches to strengthen her research plan. 2) further training in culturing, analyzing and imaging oral biofilms in a variety of static and flow-through reactors. 3) refinement of professional skills development including formal course work, attendance and presentations at weekly journal clubs, university seminars, national scientific meetings, as well as regular meetings with Dental Biomaterials Journal club (weekly); Dept. of Immunology and Microbiology seminar series (Friday Seminar Series-weekly);and 4) through regular interactions with her mentoring team. ENVIRONMENT: The environment for Dr. Nair’s training plan will be outstanding. The principal mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Stansbury is an internationally recognized NIH-funded scientist. Along with co-mentor Dr. Schurr and secondary mentors, Drs. Pfeifer and Zajdowicz and consulting mentor Dr. Jack Ferracane, a strong, inter- disciplinary mentoring team in biomedical research has been assembled. Additionally, regular input from experts such as Dr. Michael Franklin (Center for Biofilm Engineering -Montana State University) and Dr. Noel Clark (Director, Soft Matter Materials Research Center at UC-Boulder) will ensure that Dr. Nair will have access to specific expertise in key areas of her research project and overall training plan. RESEARCH: There is a growing need to develop strategies to both understand and disrupt the growth and retention of dental biofilms that can cause secondary caries and a host of systemic diseases such as aspiration pneumonia, cardiovascular disease and complications during pregnancy. This proposal aims to develop strategies to combat biofilm growth and to prevent the progression of dental caries. Working on the premise that a long-term and effective solution towards the removal of oral biofilms relies on a dynamic, photo-responsive coating that can repeatedly and efficiently disrupt oral biofilm attachment, the proposal aims to develop photo- responsive coatings on the surface of restoratives that can repeatedly and reliably be called upon to physically disrupt and dislodge biofilms.