Alexandria, VA, USA – A symposium highlighting the NIH's Human Virome Program and its relevance to oral health was presented at the 104th General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 50th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research on March 25-28, 2026 in San Diego, CA, USA.
Understanding viral prevalence, pathogenicity, and preference regarding oral tissues is critical to understanding the holistic effects of viruses on oral infections and for maintaining oral health. This session spotlighted the Human Virome Program (HVP), an NIH initiative launched in 2024, and its relevance to oral health. The HVP focuses on comprehensive virome mapping, standardized methods, and open data resources to create an unprecedented opportunity to delineate the oral virome composition, dynamics, and functional roles across health and disease. The session also highlighted translational implications, including virome-informed diagnostics, antiviral or microbiome-targeted interventions, and population-level surveillance for oral inflammatory diseases.
It addressed critical knowledge gaps by discussing viral infections of oral tissues, their disruption of mucosal immune responses, and oral disease exacerbation at molecular and cellular level. Presentations introduced new data on virome composition and dynamics in oral inflammatory conditions, coupled with functional insights into viral modulation of immune tone and tissue tropism. The session engaged clinicians seeking advances in actionable diagnostics and treatments, researchers pursuing mechanistic and multi-omics insights, and public health professionals interested in standardized, shareable datasets that inform policy.
Organized by Yvonne Hernandez-Kapila, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Afsar Naqvi, University of Illinois Chicago, USA; Flavia Teles, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; and Nisha D'Silva, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, the symposium, “The Oral Virome - Implications for Health and Disease” took place on Friday, March 27 at 8 a.m. PDT (UTC-7).
About IADR/AADOCR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is the largest division of IADR. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
