Topics at a glance: Turning stem cells to cartilage, then bone … Raffle tickets on sale now through Nov. 1 … Sign up now for Oct. 6 Race for the Cure … Get your flu shot Oct. 11 at the UT Dental Branch … More news from the ERC: Boss's Day Sale, one more new member … UTDB welcomes new faculty, new assignments

Turning stem cells to cartilage, then to bone
$50K seed grant will help researchers make it work

Researchers in the UT Dental Branch Department of Orthodontics have been awarded a $50,000 Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering Seed Grant to continue investigating the use of embryonic mouse cells to make cartilage that -- in turn -- will make bone. The UT Health Science Center at Houston Office of Biotechnology awarded the grant.

Patients who need bone grafts, or transplants, often have very little bone to spare elsewhere in their own bodies. Getting a bone graft from a cadaver donor is an option that carries a risk of rejection by the patient's immune system, as well as a risk of accidental virus transmission.

The seed grant will fund research at the UT Dental Branch that builds on student research projects that successfully created bone from cartilage developed from mouse stem cells. Eventually, this research could lead to using a patient's own stem cells from bone marrow to create cartilage, which could then generate new bone tissue. Because those stem cells would come from the patient, the final product would be a perfect match to his body, with no need for anti-rejection medicines.

Orthodontics resident Lan Doan, D.D.S., and Orthodontics Professor Jackie Duke, Ph.D., will continue and expand research that already has shown it is possible to create bone from cartilage that was itself created in the lab from mouse stem cells.

UTDB Orthodontics Professor Jackie Duke, Ph.D., is the principal investigator for the research project, titled, "Using Cartilage to Make Bone: A New Paradigm in Tissue Engineering." The co-investigator is Diana Cody, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Imaging Physics at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Duke said the project was developed more than 10 years ago by UT Dental Branch then-student Anthony Hieu Nguyen, D.D.S, with contributions by Huy Nguyen, D.D.S., and Neal Horn, D.D.S., who also were students at the time. This year, Orthodontics resident Lan Doan, D.D.S., will work on the project, along with Duke and Cody. Three other students will be selected to work on the project through this year and into next summer.

"The faculty in the Department of Orthodontics congratulate Dr. Duke for this grant," said Jeryl English, D.D.S., professor and chairman of the Orthodontics Department at the UT Dental Branch. "This is cutting-edge research, and the possible uses are huge in the areas of bone fractures and craniofacial anomalies. I am eager to see the results from this preliminary study."

Raffle tickets on sale
now through Nov. 1

The Student National Dental Association is raffling off five bicycles to raise money for future SNDA activities, with half the proceeds to be donated to a college fund for the children of the late Mina Rosenthal-Eames, a second-year dental student who died earlier this year. Tickets are priced at $10 each. Click here for details.

Get your flu shot Oct. 11
at the UT Dental Branch

Flu shots will be offered from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11 in DB 207 for $25 each. Shots will be given to faculty, staff and family or friends age 7 or older. For information, call 713-500-4008.

Sign up now for Oct. 6 Race for the Cure

The annual Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure is set for 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6 at Sam Houston Park. Proceeds will benefit breast cancer research. The Texas Association of Women Dentists has formed a race team and invites anyone interested to join. Runners or walkers welcome; competition optional. The team code is TAW, team name is UTDB-Texas Association of Women Dentists. If you're unable to join the team, you can sponsor a teammate or participate in "Sleep In for a Cure." For information, contact Amy Edgemon.

More news from the ERC:
Boss's Day Sale, one more new member

As promised in the last edition of eFlash!, more details are now available about the Employee Relations Committee's fall events. The first will be a Boss's Day Sale. Buy a mug with candy for your boss. The committee has begun taking orders for the mugs this week. They are $7 each and will be delivered Tuesday, Oct. 16. See any ERC member for details, or call Louise Stacey at Ext. 4056. The committee has also announced another new member, Kelly Jansky, Ext. 4020.

UT Dental Branch announces faculty appointments

The UT Dental Branch faculty has undergone some changes, including the following:

Chen

Jung-Wei "Anna" Chen, D.D.S., this month was named interim program director of the Pediatric Dentistry Postgraduate Program at the Dental Branch. She has worked as an assistant professor in the UTDB Pediatric Dentistry Department since 2000. The 1996 graduate of the Taipei Medical University School of Dentistry in Taiwan practiced dentistry there for two years before coming to the U.S., where she earned a certificate in pediatric dentistry and a master of science degree in oral biology at the University of Maryland in 2000. She also received a master's degree in health informatics from The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences in 2002, where she currently is a doctoral candidate. Chen is a diplomate and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. Her research interests involve both clinical pediatric dentistry and informatics.

Ortegon

Sergio Manuel Ortegon, D.D.S., has joined the UTDB staff as an assistant professor in the Prosthodontics Department. He is a 1998 graduate of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia, and earned a master of dental science degree at the University of Connecticut in 2006, serving a residency there in Prosthodontics.

Earlier this year, he completed a maxillofacial prosthetics/dental oncology fellowship at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. His research interests include osseointegration in irradiated bone, oral rehabilitation of the head-and-neck cancer patient, and overdentures.