IADR PRESS RELEASES

Alexandria, Va., USA – The International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) have published a Journal of Dental Research special issue on craniofacial stem cells. This special issue of the Journal of Dental Research encompasses a diverse group of articles that provide a review of important recent advances in craniofacial stem cell biology as well as examples of state-of-the-art research in the field. The issue spans multiple components of the craniofacial complex, from teeth to bones and glands, and it covers both normal development as well as disease processes. The findings from this special issue have implications in the advancement of human oral health in patients suffering from afflictions such as oral cancer, injury or congenital disorders.

Dean Ho, Ph.D. is a professor in the Division of Oral Biology and Medicine and co-director of the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry. He is also a professor of bioengineering and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and California NanoSystems Institute. Previously he was an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University.  

Ho received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from UCLA. Today he leads one of the pre-eminent teams in the world that is developing nanodiamonds as drug delivery agents, and has pioneered multiple approaches towards improved therapeutic efficiency using engineering and nanotechnology-based approaches. In the area of chemotherapy, his team developed NDX, a nanodiamond-drug complex based upon the potent interaction of the diamond surface with doxorubicin, a commonly used cancer drug in the clinic that is also highly toxic. Through the synthesis of NDX, a marked enhancement in drug efficacy and reduced toxicity were demonstrated over clinical standards.