Alexandria, VA, USA, June 22, 2022 – The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) announced Kevin Ketagoda, The University of Adelaide, Australia as the 2022 recipient of the IADR Norton Ross Fellowship. Ketagoda was recognized during the Opening Ceremonies of the virtual 100th General Session & Exhibition of the IADR, held in conjunction with the 5th Meeting of the Asia Pacific Region on June 20-25, 2022.
The Fellowship allows a dental or postgraduate student to obtain training and experience in dental or related research. It is awarded every other year and rotates among the IADR Divisions. The Fellowship was awarded in the IADR Australia/New Zealand Division. The IADR funds the Fellowship to the amount of US$2,800.
Kentagoda was awarded the Fellowship for his study, “High Throughput Sequencing and Bioinformatics to Assist Developing Human Oral Microbiome Transplantation”. This project investigates utilizing High Throughout Sequencing (HTS) technologies and bioinformatics to assist in the development of Oral Microbiome Transplantation (OMT) therapy as new method to improve oral health. The HTS will play a vital role in identifying members of the general population suitable to donate plaque for OMT and examining if donated human plaque can be grown using an in vitro model prior to being transplanted.
The training supported by the Fellowship will be utilized to identify and characterize potential ‘super donors’ who have less abundance of red complex microbes and no transmissible pathogens in their oral microbiome. It will play an important role in the refinement of the in vitro growth of the plaque of these super donors prior to being transplanted into an in vivo model or humans. Bioinformatics analysis will assist in ensuring the abundance and diversity is maintained from plaque collection-in vitro growth-transplantation. Network analysis will be used to explore co-occurrence patterns in oral microbial communities. Linear regression analysis will analyze oral microbiome compositional data to identify bacterial taxa that are linked with continuous responses such as diet, oral hygiene habits and ethnicity.
The knowledge gained on how to use these bioinformatics techniques will be passed on to other members within the University of Adelaide Dental School and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. The data generated will be added the Human Oral Microbiome Database where it will be available for public access.
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About IADR
The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with over 10,000 individual members worldwide, with a Mission to drive dental, oral and craniofacial research to advance health and well-being worldwide. To learn more, visit www.iadr.org.