Workshop Explores Interdisciplinary Work with Penn Engineering

Program organizers Dr. Kathleen Stebe of Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, of Penn Dental Medicine.

Philadelphia – Faculty from Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering came together on May 9 for the “Engineering Precision Dental Medicine Workshop,” sharing their research with each other and exploring new ways for interdisciplinary collaboration. Held at Penn Dental Medicine, the daylong program was organized by Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, Professor, Department of Orthodontics and Divisions of Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health at Penn Dental Medicine, and Dr. Kathleen Stebe, Deputy Dean for Research and Innovation in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“Our mission is to identify how we can combine our talents and resources to create new breakthroughs for oral health in terms of enhanced mechanistic understanding of oral biofilm infections and tissue regeneration, as well as to develop new efficacious therapies,” says Dr. Koo.

Dr. Koo explained that in collaboration with Dr. Stebe they hope to use this gathering as a starting point for discussion on identifying new collaborative programs and projects. Their goals include:

• defining a new NIH training program to develop a cohort of students and researchers at the interfaces of both fields to leverage Penn-developed technologies into dental medicine;
• identifying spaces where they can compete for funding and defining teams to do so, including defining pilot projects for phase II of this initiative; and
• building relationships with industry to develop collaborative research.

Along with working sessions for discussion, the day included two morning and two afternoon sessions of presentations by faculty from Penn Dental Medicine and Penn Engineering. The topics and presenters included:
Precision Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Patients Sustaining Orofacial Injuries
Dr. Anh D. Le, Penn Dental Medicine

Insilico Pharmacology: Targeting Inflammation and Cancer
Dr. Ravi Radhakrishnan, Penn Engineering

Stem Cell Molecular Therapy: Repair of Injured and Diseased Skeletal Tissues
Dr. Shuying (Sheri) Yang, Penn Dental Medicine

High Strength and High Performance Hierarchical Materials through Nanoscale Engineering
Dr. James Pikul, Penn Engineering

The Oral Microbiome in Health and Disease: Old Challenges and New Opportunities
Dr. Flavia Teles, Penn Dental Medicine

Stress and Survival among Enteric Bacteria
Dr. Mark Goulian, Penn Engineering

Peri-implantitis vs. Periodontitis: An Old Disease on a New Surface
Dr. Yota Stathopoulou, Penn Dental Medicine

Prospects in Single Cell and Sub-cellular Genomics
Dr. Junhyong Kim, Penn Engineering

Biofilms and Tooth-Decay: A Persisting Global Health Problem
Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo, Penn Dental Medicine

Films of Bacteria at Interfaces
Dr. Kathleen J. Stebe, Penn Engineering

Intracanal Infections Influence the Outcome of Root Canal Treatment
Dr. Bekir Karabucak, Penn Dental Medicine

Droplet Microfluidics: From Drug Delivery to Cellular Interrogation
Dr. Daeyeon Lee, Penn Engineering

Epigenetic Regulation of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy
Dr. Chider Chen, Penn Dental Medicine

Microengineered Physiological Models of Human Organs and Tissues
Dr. Dan Huh, Penn Engineering

Material Interfaces in Current Restorative Dentistry
Dr. Markus B. Blatz, Penn Dental Medicine

Development of Novel Antibody and Nanoparticle Platforms for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications
Dr. Andrew Tsourkas, Penn Engineering

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