Member Profile

My research has centered on studying an oral infectious disease that can have severe consequences in organs distant from the oral cavity. The disease, Localized Aggressive Periodontitis, affects first molars in adolescents and is strongly associated with a specific Gram-negative capnophile, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa). The goal of my research is to uncover the molecular, biological, and clinical effects of this distinctive and highly influential oral microbe. Our overall strategy has been to examine Aa on three levels, 1) observational (human longitudinal studies), 2) molecular (in vitro studies), and 3) interventional (animal models that study Aa gene modifications and the effect of these mutated strains on the overall oral and gastrointestinal microbiome). On an observational level we have assessed disease initiation in a longitudinal study of over 2,000 adolescents from Newark who start out healthy and develop disease over a three-year period. In those who developed disease, Aa was found to be necessary but required a consortium of associated microbes in order to initiate disease. Molecular studies have permitted us to dissect Aa virulence genes that alter both innate and acquired immune responsiveness. Finally, Aa with key gene deletions have been inoculated into the oral cavity of primates to study the relationship of wild-type Aa as compared to Aa with gene deletions and their effect on; 1) the initiation of periodontal inflammation and bone destruction at the local level, 2) the modification of the overall microbiome associated with wild type Aa as compared to Aa with gene deletions. Our goal is to pursue strategies for early diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic interventions that could alter the course of local and systemic disease in humans.