Our Labs

My lab focuses on identifying and translating regenerative materials and technologies to reestablish dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) tissue health. We use both in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical animal models to gain further insight into the potential clinical safety and efficacy of the developed biomaterials and overall regenerative strategies.

The Decker Lab is focused on developing technologies that 1) detect and interpret the inter- and intra-cellular signaling networks within the tissue microenvironment, 2) alter an existing unfavorable microenvironment and 3) leverage alterations in the pathophysiological microenvironment for early detection and intervention. We have several active research aims towards these goals.

The Fontana/González Lab and Clinical Research Unit's research interests relate primarily to caries management in children, including risk assessment (and interprofessional care models), dental sealants, and oral biofilms as it relates to caries development and/or prevention (and included in this area, therapies that may affect the biofilm, such as xylitol, silver diammine fluoride, etc).

The Gonzalez laboratory is interested in understanding dental caries and their clinical management. Particular interest in remineralization, fluorides, diagnosis and oral health products in general (e.g., dentifrices, rinses, toothbrushes, etc.).

My broad research interests are in tumor angiogenesis and stem cell biology. My current research foci are the study of mechanisms regulating the vascularization of head and neck tumors, and the impact of cancer stem cells in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas and salivary gland cancer.

The Ritchie laboratory is focused on studying two major dentin noncollagenous proteins, dentin sialoprotein (DSP) and physophporyn (PP) which appear to play a significant role in the conversion of uncalcified predentin to calcified dentin.

The Tenuta Lab is focused on understanding the interactions between the dental biofilm, fluoride and caries, with the goal of developing innovative solutions to reduce caries experience throughout the lifecourse.