Oral Biology PhD Program

Admissions Information   |   Degree Components   |   Tuition & Fees
Financial Aid   |   Faculty   |   Academic & Living Environment

Faculty

Greg K. Essick, Professor, Prosthodontics; Ph.D., North Carolina, 1983, D.D.S., North Carolina, 1979. Somatosensory and motor research, neural mechanisms: tactile psychophysics with emphasis on motion processing and perception.

Mark Hollins, Professor, Psychology; Ph.D., Brown, 1971. Somatosensory and motor research, sensation and perception: tactile perception of objects and events; psychophysical analysis of pain and analgesia.

Edward F. Kelly, Research Associate Professor, Diagnostic Sciences and General Dentistry; Ph.D., Harvard, 1970. Neural mechanisms, electrophysiological measurement, non-invasive imaging of human brain function.

Alan R. Light, Professor, Cell and Molecular Physiology; Ph.D., SUNY-Syracuse, 1977. Somatosensory and motor research, pain sensation: descending modulation of pain pathways, ascending nociceptive pathways and neurobiological modulation of neural transmission, synaptic activation and gene expression of C-FOS.

William Maixner, Professor, Endodontics and Pharmacology; Associate Dean, Academic Affairs; Ph.D., Iowa, 1982, D.D.S., Iowa, 1983. Neural coding of nociceptive information, pain perception.

Glenn Matsushima, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, and Research Scientist, UNC Neuroscience Center; Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1988. Neuroimmunology and inflammation in the central nervous system using molecular and cellular approaches to study the regulation of macrophages. (Also associated with Host-Pathogens Interactions Training Area)

Gerry S. Oxford, Professor, Cell and Molecular Physiology; Ph.D., Emory, 1974. Neural mechanisms: relationships of neurotransmitters and modulatory peptides and receptors for these with ion channels in neuronal and endocrine cell membranes; electrophysiology of neural mechanisms: modulation of ion channels, functional characterization of ion channel activity in the cellular process of hormone and neurotransmitter secretion.

Aldo Rustioni, Professor, Cell Biology and Anatomy; M.D., Milan, Italy, 1965. Neuroanatomy, neurocytology, neurohistochemistry, electron microscopy, neurophysiology, somatosensory system, neurotransmitters and modulation of somatosensation.

Donald W. Warren, Kenan Professor, Dental Ecology and Surgery; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1963, D.D.S., North Carolina, 1959. Craniofacial development, cleft palate, speech aerodynamics, respiration, olfaction.

John R. Zuniga, Associate Professor, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Ph.D., Rochester, 1986, D.M.D., Tufts, 1978. Oral and maxillofacial surgery, nerve injury and regeneration, orofacial pain and sensation.

Roland R. Arnold, Professor, Diagnostic Sciences and and General Dentistry; Ph.D., Louisiana State University, 1975. Host-pathogen interactions in periodontal diseases, lactoferrin, neutrophil function, secretory immunity, host-microbial biology, specific and innate host defense factors.

Patrick M. Flood, Associate Professor, Periodontology and Microbiology and Immunology, Ph.D., Chicago, 1980. Host-microbial biology, cellular immunology, immune response, virology, antigen processing and presentation, mechanisms of T-cell activation, immune regulation.

Robert E. Johnston, Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Ph.D. U. of Texas. Virology, viral pathogenesis, genetic analysis and strategies for immune modulation: molecular genetics of alphavirus pathogenesis, design of alphavirus vaccines, and development of vaccine vectors based on alphavirus vaccines.

Linda G. Levin, Assistant Professor, Endodontics; D.D.S., UNC Chapel Hill, NC, 1983, Ph.D., Microbiology and Immunology, UNC Chapel Hill, NC, 1995. Genetic expression in Human Odontoblasts. Molecular characterization of the pulpal immune response, chemotherapeutic interventions in dentoalveolar trauma, molecular characterization of the immune response in Hemophilia A.

Thomas Kawula, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology; Ph.D., UNC-CH, M.S., University of Idaho. Molecular basis for bacterial pathogenesis, genetic analysis and approaches for study of certain pathogens and infectivity mechanisms (Haemophilus ducreyi, Aeromonas hydrophila, Escherichia coli).

Glenn Matsushima, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology, and Research Scientist, UNC Neuroscience Center; Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1988. Neuroimmunology and inflammation in the central nervous system using molecular and cellular approaches to study the regulation of macrophages. (Also associated with Orofacial Neurobiology Training Area)

Steven Offenbacher, Professor, Periodontology; Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth, 1977, D.D.S., Virginia Commonwealth, 1976, M.M.Sc., Harvard, 1980. Inflammatory mediators, host response, periodontal diseases, smokeless tobacco, oral and enteric endotoxins, relationships of inflammatory mediators and periodontal diseases to low birth weights and risks in pregnancy outcomes and as risk factors in cardiovascular diseases.

Nancy Raab-Traub, Professor, Microbiology & Immunology; Ph.D., Chicago. Pathogenesis of Epstein-Barr virus, EBV gene expression and structural analyses, EBV-associated lymphomas.

Diane C. Shugars, Assistant Professor, Dental Ecology and Microbiology and Immunology; D.D.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 1983; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 1993. Human immunodeficiency viruses and AIDS-pathogenesis, molecular biology and immunology; infectious diseases and antiviral agents, virus-host cell interactions.

Christina Teng, Adjunct Associate Professor, Periodontology, and Research Biologist and Supervisor, Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park; Ph.D., University of Texas. Effect of environmental estrogen on the regulation of lactoferrin gene expression in a variety of cell types, molecular analysis of lactoferrin gene structure, interactions of regulatory elements and trans-acting cellular factors, human lactoferrin structure and function relationship.

Jenny Ting, Alumni Distinguished Professor, Microbiology and Immunology; Ph.D., Northwestern, Chicago, Illinois. Molecular immunology, tumor immunology, neuroimmunology, transplantation biology, and transcriptional regulation including regulation of major histocompatibility (MHC) genes by cytokines such as interferons and tumor necrosis factors, study of MHC function in diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, gene regulation.

Roland Tisch, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Immunology; Ph.D., Toronto, Canada. Immunology, inflammation, diabetes, T-cell biology, molecular mechanisms in development of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, therapeutic intervention in autoimmunity.

Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque, Assistant Professor, Dental Ecology; DDS, New York, PhD, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC 1998. Oral manifestations of systemic disease, host-virus interactions, viral oncogenesis, viral pathogenesis during immunosuppression, signal transduction, cellular biology and gene expression.

Ikramudden Aukhil, Professor, Periodontology; B.D.S., M.S., Michigan, 1981. Tissue regeneration, structure/function of extracellular matrix protein tenascin, wound healing.

Lyndon F. Cooper, Assistant Professor, Prosthodontics and Biochemistry and Biophysics; D.D.S., New York University, 1983, Ph.D., Rochester, 1990. Stress determinants in osteoblast physiology, molecular determinants of osseointegration in dental implants.

Miles A. Crenshaw, Professor, Pediatric Dentistry; Ph.D., Duke, 1964. Biomineralization, matrix control of mineral induction and post-nucleation growth.

Gayle Lester, Research Associate Professor, Orthopaedics and Pharmacology; Ph.D., Medical College of Virginia. Bone physiology and osteoinduction focusing on biochemistry of extracellular matrix; vitamin D metabolism, calcium homeostasis, and markers of bone turnover; osteoporosis; osteosarcoma and mechanisms of drug resistance; ligament healing and cellular modulation of collagen synthesis.

Lola M. Reid, Professor, Cell and Molecular Physiology; Ph.D., UNC-CH. Regulation of synthesis and abundance of tissue-specific mRNA's by cooperative effects of hormones and extracellular matrix, especially heparin proteoglycans; identification, isolation, and regulation of growth and differentiation of liver stem cells and related precursor cell populations.

Kenneth B. Tomer, Supervisory Research Chemist, Leader, Mass Spectrometry Workgroup, Laboratory of Structural Biology, NIEHS, RTP. PhD, Colorado, 1970. Development of mass spectrometric applications to biological problems.

Svein Toverud, Professor Emeritus, Pharmacology; Ph.D., Oslo, 1964, D.M.D., Harvard, 1954. Hormonal regulation of bone and calcium metabolism, particularly in pregnancy and lactation; regulation of secretion of parathyroid hormone and calcitriol; regulation of intestinal calcium absorption.

John Timothy Wright, Professor, Pediatric Dentistry; D.D.S., West Virginia, 1978, M.S., Alabama at Birmingham, 1983. Developmental defects of teeth, mineralization of dental tissues, genetic disorders of teeth, extracellular matrices in dental tissues in states of disease and health, molecular control of tooth formation.

Mitsuo Yamauchi, Professor, Periodontology; Ph.D., Tokyo, 1983, D.D.S., Tokyo, 1976. Collagen biochemistry, physiology and metabolism of bone, characterization of collagens in various connective tissue.

Admissions Information   |   Degree Components   |   Tuition & Fees
Financial Aid   |   Faculty   |   Academic & Living Environment

Last modified: 06/17/2002 at 03:32:01