Welcome to the Dental Branch Research Office

• The Dental Branch excels in several research areas—biomarker discovery, oral carcinogenesis, mucosal immunity, autoimmunity, molecular imaging of cancer, biomaterials, and pathogenesis of periodontal disease
  
• The environment of the Texas Medical Center and Greater Houston provides unparalleled  resources for developing research in genomics, proteomics, clinical and translational sciences, and nanotechnology
  
• The Dental Branch is highly integrated into the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), established as a result of the Center for Translational Science Award (CTSA) to the Health Science Center from the National Center for Research Resources at the NIH.  Dental Branch faculty serve on several of the oversight committees of the CCTS, including the Training Board, the T32 Advisory Board, the Engines of Innovation Think Tank, the Executive Council and the Administrative Council.   The CCTS provides exceptional resources for planning clinical trials, biostatistics, bioethics, epidemiology, and core facilities for various types of biological assays.  The Dental Branch has begun to plan for a biobanking facility that will store oral brush biopsies and saliva samples from all patients seen for treatment planning.  This will provide a valuable resource for population-based studies.
• Collaborative research is very strong.  The faculty of the Dental Branch have active research collaborations with a multitude of local, national, and international partners.  These partners are not only universities, but also industry and pharmaceutical companies.