Maria Guerra has been appointed director of operations of UCSF Dental Center, effective March 15, 2017.

Guerra, longtime operations and finance manager of the predoctoral clinics and Buchanan Dental Center, will be responsible for the day-to-day coordination of clinical facilities and central clinical services areas within UCSF Dental Center. She will work closely with UCSF Dental Center's chief executive officer/chief dental officer, Dr. Sunil Kapila; Lauren Haworth, chief financial officer; Dr. Mark Kirkland, associate dean for clinical affairs; and department chairs, program directors and department managers in addressing the clinical mission of the Dental Center. Specifically, Guerra will work with these individuals to obtain information, review opportunities and facilitate the implementation of best practices for enhancing patient care and patient experiences, increasing patient volume, achieving clinic efficiencies and improving billing, collections and procurement.

The director of operations is a new position that will report directly to Dr. Kapila and indirectly to Dr. Kirkland. 

"I hope that you will join me in congratulating and welcoming Maria to her new position," said Dr. Kapila. "I expect that we all will provide her with the needed support in enhancing our delivery of 'outstanding, seamless, cutting-edge patient-centered collaborative care' as envisioned in our Strategic Plan."

Having served in various capacities at UCSF School of Dentistry, UCSF Ambulatory Care Center and in the private sector, Guerra brings successful and relevant experiences to her new role. As operations and finance manager, Guerra has been responsible for many of the central units supporting the UCSF Dental Center clinical enterprise (sterilization, student store, facilities and the Fleming Lab). Previously she served as department manager of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and manager of the Faculty Group Practice in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences. Guerra has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration and more than three decades of experience in healthcare administration. 

UC San Francisco is the lead institution on a California-based, six-university consortium that was awarded $12 million by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to develop strategies for treating craniofacial and dental defects, which affect millions of Americans.

The three-year award, announced March 7, 2017, further develops the Center for Dental, Oral & Craniofacial Tissue & Organ Regeneration (C-DOCTOR), which is one of two national resource centers comprising the NIDCR’s Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Tissue Regeneration Consortium.

It was created last year as a partnership among several California institutions: UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, the University of Southern California and Stanford University.

Jeffrey Lotz, PhD, professor and vice chair of research and the David S. Bradford, MD, Endowed Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF, is the UCSF principal investigator. Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Genetics, chair of the Division of Craniofacial Anomalies and director of the Program in Craniofacial Biology in the UCSF School of Dentistry, is the UCSF co-PI.

“This award is an incredibly exciting step for the craniofacial community at UCSF,” said Dr. Klein. “Together with our colleagues, we are looking forward to translating the scientific advances obtained in basic research laboratories into treatments that can directly help patients."

>> Read the complete article on UCSF.edu.

Emad Boutros, DDS, School of Dentistry class of 2010 and former faculty member, passed away unexpectedly March 5 after an accident.

Dr. Boutros, who was a clinical instructor from 2015-16, also was president of his class in 2008-09. Most recently, he was in private practice in Tracy.

The UCSF School of Dentistry will host a short-term visit this month for a research fellow through the International Association for Dental Research.

The IADR STAR Network Academy Fellowship will bring Zhejun Wang, DDS, PhD, here to perform research in the lab of Yvonne Kapila, DDS, PhD, following the IADR General Session, March 22-25 in San Francisco.

Dr. Wang, a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, launched the endodontic program there; he also has continued his oral biofilm research at UBC. He will join Dr. Kapila’s lab for five weeks, focusing on oral microbiology.

Dr. Kapila's work has focused on understanding the basic extracellular matrix processes that govern head and neck cancer tumorigenesis and periodontal disease pathogenesis. Other recently funded work in her lab has focused on host-microbial interactions as related to the oral cavity.

IADR STAR Network Academy fellows are required to submit a brief report on their experiences to IADR at the conclusion of the fellowship, which may be published as part of the IADR Global Research Update, and will be reported to the IADR Board and Council on an annual basis.

Related links:

• IADR STAR Network Academy Fellowship
• About Dr. Kapila's research

Cynthia Zarate has joined the School of Dentistry's Office of Curriculum Support as education coordinator. 

In this role, Zarate will be involved in developing innovative uses of technology to support the teaching and learning experience for faculty and students. Streamlining course management, implementing new technology solutions, and providing expertise and training resources will be some of her areas of focus.

Zarate comes to the school from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. She has a background in medical association management, specifically managing educational medical courses, faculty committees and project-based programs/initiatives. She is experienced in project management and working in the non-profit arena.

A Los Angeles native and graduate of Columbia University, Zarate also volunteers her time with the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Girls on the Run.

Alice Goodwin, DDS, PhD, is the 2017 recipient of the Damsky Award (Program in Craniofacial Biology FY16-17 Exploratory Grants Initiative). Her proposal is "Analysis of craniofacial dysmorphology and malocclusion in Costello syndrome individuals and mouse models." She is working with Drs. Sunil Kapila and Ophir Klein in the Department of Orofacial Sciences and the Program in Craniofacial Biology.

The award is supported by an endowed fund established by Caroline Damsky, PhD, longtime researcher and faculty member at UCSF. The fund supports projects developed by trainees and junior faculty in related oral health clinical specialties, such as orthodontics and craniofacial anomalies, with an emphasis on research that proposes to mine the Craniofacial Center’s data for new insights into the etiology and treatment of craniofacial defects.

The School of Dentistry and UCSF's three other professional schools once again ranked first in their fields in 2016 funding from the National Institutes of Health. Overall, UCSF was the top public recipient of biomedical research grants in 2016, and ranked second among all public and private institutions.

The $19.5 million the School of Dentistry received in 2016 far exceeded that received by second-place University of Pennsylvania. This is the 25th year the school has led all others in NIH funding. This is the fourth consecutive year that all UCSF schools — dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy — have ranked first nationally.

The school's top recipients of NIH funding for 2016 include:

1. Jon Levine, $1,717,805
2. Ophir Klein, $1,436,875
3. Carol Gross, $1,016,139
4. Sarah Knox, $1,030,201
5. Shingo Kajimura, $941,363

Related links:

• UCSF.edu: UCSF Is Top Public Recipient of NIH Research Funding for 6th Consecutive Year
• UCSF.edu: 2016 NIH Funding: A Look at Top Recipients and Their Research

Dorothy Perry, PhD, former associate dean for education and student affairs in the School of Dentistry, is back on recall appointment to direct the school’s Continuing Dental Education program. 

Prior to her retirement in June 2016, Dr. Perry had overseen the program since 2005. During her tenure, the Continuing Dental Education program has grown by more than 30 percent, regularly attracting large audiences to all programs and serving our dental community.

The program aims to provide a service to the dental community, highlight UCSF faculty speakers and other respected dental experts, and provide continuing dental education credit to both faculty and community practitioners.

Offerings include 15 or more single-day Saturday programs each year, and popular destination programs — two in Hawaii, one in Yosemite, and occasional cruises. Preceptorship programs and management of the Dental Alumni Association Annual Session CDE also are under the program’s auspices.

The CDE team includes Melissa Fung, program manager, and Leslie Chocano Solis, administrative assistant; contact them by emailing melissa.fung@ucsf.edu. Dr. Perry is available Thursdays for in-person meetings on campus. 

The IADR/AADR/CADR general session, held March 22-25 at Moscone Center West in San Francisco, brought hundreds of researchers to the city — and a great many awards to School of Dentistry faculty and students.

Students

First-year dental student Kelly Ren (mentor: Sharon Tugizov) was awarded an AADR Student Research Fellowship. This fellowship, supported by several major industrial companies as well as by AADR group chapters, sections and members, is sponsored and administered by the AADR and has been created to encourage dental students living in the United States to consider careers in oral health research.

Second-year dental student Manabu Manandhar won a Salivary Research Group Award for Dental Students. The Salivary Research Group forms one of the main scientific groups within the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), the leading forum for dental researchers to present their oral care research results. Salivary research encompasses a broad range of research including salivary gland development and regeneration, functions of saliva proteins, regulation of protein secretion, diagnosis and treatment of oral and/or systemic disorders, salivary diagnostics for various diseases, physiological dysfunction, and much more. The group has a large student membership and offers them unique opportunities to give presentations in both verbal and poster formats to a collection of world experts at the IADR meetings.

AADR competition winners include postdoctoral fellow Andrew Jang, DDS, PhD (mentor: Daniel Fried, PhD), who won second place in the Hatton Competition – Postdoctoral Category. Read more about the Hatton Award.

The John C. Greene Society won the National Student Research Group award for best chapter newsletter. Newsletter editor Morgan Nelson and JGS President Linda Kim were on hand to receive the award.

Oral and Craniofacial Sciences PhD student Daniel Clark, DDS, MS, won an IADR Karring-Nyman SUNSTAR Guidor Award. The Karring-Nyman SUNSTAR Guidor Award, sponsored by the Sunstar Foundation, is a new award offered for the first time in 2017 through the IADR Periodontal Research Group. The award supports research within the field of oral tissue regeneration. The 10,000€ ($10,754) award will be conferred annually, based on an application for a research project within the field of oral tissue regeneration. 

Faculty

Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, was the recipient of the 2017 IADR Craniofacial Biology Research Award.  Supported by DENTSPLY International, this award was established to recognize persons who have contributed to the body of knowledge in craniofacial biology over a significant period of time. It further acknowledges these research contributions as accepted by the scientific community. The criteria include: contributions to the scientific community throughout the applicant’s career; the impact of the research on the particular discipline of craniofacial biology in which the research is done, the profession of dentistry, and health services as a whole; publications in refereed journals; funded research through the peer-review mechanism; and other activities considered to be of a scholarly nature.

Daniel Fried, PhD, was awarded the William H. Bowen Research in Dental Caries Award, supported by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. This award is designed to stimulate and recognize outstanding and innovative achievements that have contributed to the basic understanding of caries etiology and/or to the prevention of dental caries. Evidence must be presented that the nominee has conducted original and important investigations in any of the biological or chemical disciplines involved in caries research. Clinical investigations also may be considered if they have contributed significantly to the prevention and control of dental caries.

Grayson Marshall, DDS, MPH, PhD, along with co-investigators Stefan Habelitz, Sally Marshall and Kuniko Saeki, received one of three IADR Innovation in Oral Care Awards. The award, jointly sponsored by the International Association for Dental Research and GlaxoSmithKline, offer opportunities for investigators to conduct dental research that will have a direct impact on the oral health of the public.

The AADR bestowed its 2017 honorary membership on Robert Lustig, MD, professor of pediatrics in the UCSF Division of Endocrinology and member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies. Dr. Lustig is known for his research on sugar (fructose), obesity and chronic disease. The AADR honorary membership is given to a person who has made significant contributions to and/or supports dental research.

UCSF attendees at the IADR/AADR/CADR general session
 

The American Dental Education Association annual session and exhibition, March 18-21 in Long Beach, Calif., featured a number of School of Dentistry presenters and award winners.

Jennifer Perkins, DDS, MD, assistant clinical professor, received the ADEA/ADEA Council of Students, Residents and Fellows/Colgate-Palmolive Co. Junior Faculty Award. Dr. Perkins, who joined the faculty full-time in July 2015, also is in the PhD program at UCSF in education. The Junior Faculty Award provides support to educators to enhance teaching efforts.

Third-year dental student Irene Louie and second-year student Ivy Vuong are recipients of the ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Preventive Dentistry Scholarship. Each will receive $2,500. D-2 Elias Almaz is the recipient of a $4,500 ADEA/Crest Oral-B Scholarship for predoctoral dental students pursuing academic careers (plus $1,000 for travel to the ADEA annual session and to the Procter & Gamble Research Center in Ohio).

Faculty and staff who presented at the annual session include:

• Gwen Essex, MS, EdD, RDH: Creating Safe Spaces Without Boundaries for Our LGBTQ Students: Ally Training
• Natalie Hastings, DMD: Faculty Development Marketplace: A Forum for Collaboration (Short Talks)
• Elsbeth Kalenderian, DDS, MPH, PhD: Using the Electronic Health Records to Measure the quality of Dental Patient Care
• Jewel Smally (Office of Curriculum Support): Teaching and Learning With Emerging Technologies and Informatics: Short Talks
   

Dean John D.B. Featherstone's April column:

With the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) having just held its general session here in San Francisco last month, research is very much front of mind.

Excellence in research is, along with patient care and education, one of the cornerstones of our mission. We had more than 70 presentations at the general session; I doubt any other school has had as many. IADR (and its American and Canadian counterparts) — meeting here for the first time in many years — showcased the breadth and depth of our research.

Many of our graduate students and faculty members had the opportunity to present their work in oral and poster presentations. Faculty took part in symposia during the session; Drs. Benjamin Chaffee and Stuart Gansky also led satellite symposia (global oral health and epidemiology) immediately before IADR, which were open to session attendees.

As much as UCSF is known for biomedical research, it’s important to note that we — the School of Dentistry — are likewise involved in dental and craniofacial research as well.

I’m proud to note that some of our researchers were recognized by IADR for their work in those fields: Daniel Fried, who received the William H. Bowen Research in Dental Caries Award; Ophir Klein, winner of the 2017 IADR Craniofacial Biology Research Award; and Grayson Marshall, with co-investigators Stefan Habelitz, Sally Marshall and Kuniko Saeki, recipients of an IADR Innovation in Oral Care Award. (Our story on the IADR general session has more details on our accomplishments.)

It was interesting — and gratifying — to be at the IADR opening ceremony, sitting next to a dean from another school, who commented: “Oh, and another one of yours! You certainly have an influence worldwide.”

Another one of “ours” (meaning UCSF’s) was Joe DeRisi, the esteemed professor and scientist who was one of three plenary speakers at IADR. This was a great honor for UCSF. The association also grants honorary membership each year to a scholar outside of dentistry whose research has been important and relevant to our field. This year, UCSF’s Robert Lustig — known widely for his sugar research — was the recipient. We take pride in their acknowledgement; they both are tremendously influential researchers.

The excellence of the research done here speaks to why UCSF is a perennial leader in federal research funding. The School of Dentistry leads all others — now for the 25th year — in grants from the National Institutes of Health.  The UCSF Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy were also all number one in their areas in NIH funding giving UCSF a clean sweep for the fourth straight year.

Our influence is felt in other venues too. The American Dental Education Association held its annual session in Long Beach just days before IADR; a number of our faculty presented there as well, and three of our students received scholarships.

Excellence in research indeed is linked to excellence in patient care and education. Much of the research we perform here influences the world of dentistry in terms of practical, clinical applications — in the classroom and in the clinic. It’s a mission we are proud to carry forth.

In Tagalog/Filipino, “Mabuhay” is a greeting or celebratory toast that means “long live” or “cheers.” It’s also like a verbal high-five or fist-pump.

The term certainly is fitting at the student-run Mabuhay Health Center in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where most of the patients are elderly Filipinos striving for a long and hearty life.

It’s appropriate, too, for UCSF dental students, heartened by closer collaborations with students and health care professionals from different fields. They cheer a new model of interprofessional patient care and education that puts dental students in the frontline of care alongside medical, pharmacy and nursing students.

And the patients at the Mabuhay Health Center benefit from comprehensive checkups that consider oral health with various medical assessments.

The Mabuhay Health Center was established in 2008 by UCSF students to offer free, culturally sensitive health care in a neighborhood with a largely immigrant, mostly Filipino, population. It offers a monthly clinic with physical examinations, screenings, vaccinations, medication counseling and health education. UCSF students from all the professional schools and community health coaches volunteer care. Medical, pharmacy, nursing and dental professionals – or preceptors – oversee the students’ screenings and health care management.

“Until recently, dental screenings, evaluations and management at the clinic were conducted separately, and there was little to no communication between dentals students and those from the other professions,” said Sheila Brear, associate dean for academic affairs in the UCSF School of Dentistry.

She and the preceptors saw this as a barrier to interprofessional practice and education. So, in February, they developed a pilot program that included dental students into the intake, screening and examination process. The new approach also added value to the patient experience.

The pilot placed dental students into the important “huddles” — discussions between health professionals and students. In initial screenings, questions added to those about other medical complaints and habits included, “Do you have any pain in your mouth, head or neck?” “Do you have any problems chewing your food?” “Are you able to brush/floss your teeth?”

At the clinic, students and preceptors performed initial screenings of patients. And during the first huddle, a small team of professional students — one representing each health discipline — discussed a general approach to acute or chronic health issues for each patient. A larger group of professional students and preceptors was available to help.

After initial huddles, students examined patients, aided with recommendations from the larger group. Later, students returned to a post-patient huddle to present histories and clinical findings to the preceptors and the large group, where assessments plans were finalized.

“The immediate feedback from medical and pharmacy students about this new approach was overwhelmingly positive,” said Dr. Brear. “Non-dental students learned about and then directly observed oral examinations, which included screenings for oral cancer. Dental, pharmacy, medical and nursing students engaged in vigorous discussions around important topics such as perioperative medication management and potential for uncontrolled chronic diseases to post-operative outcomes.

“Importantly, the patients benefited from important counseling and recommendations from dental students and dentists,” said Dr. Brear.

First- and second-year dental students participating in the clinic were enthusiastic about the interprofessional approach to patient care. “We were not limited to analyzing just the patient’s oral health,” said second-year dental student Maritess Aristorenas. “For example, a patient was diagnosed with vertigo, and we wanted to know what factors could trigger her vertigo. All the students from the different schools contributed ideas such as orthostatic hypotension, stress, or other possibilities.

“It was wonderful to see all of us working as a team – no divisions, no hierarchy,” said Aristorenas. “I was really excited that I was able to apply what I learned in biomedical science class for this case. At the end of the event, we all discussed how we felt about working together, and we all agreed that this volunteer event was the most effective interprofessional opportunity we’ve encountered.

“I was surprised at how UCSF has prepared us dental students to recall certain conditions or pharmacologic agents that real patients actually have or take,” Aristorenas continued. “I told my friends that I truly felt like I was a doctor. It was truly a rewarding experience, and I cannot wait to do it again.”

“After this clinic session, I felt inspired to keep up with my dental training as well as review what I have learned throughout my first two years in dental school,” said second-year dental student Noel De Leon. “In future clinic sessions, I hope to be able to contribute more during our team huddles, not only for the patient’s oral health but to share my knowledge with the students of the other health disciplines.”

“Students both implicitly and explicitly learned the importance of professional humility and respect,” said preceptor Christopher Bautista, MD, UCSF assistant professor of medicine. “They learned skills in interprofessional communication. Additionally, faculty also found unique opportunities for academic collaboration and teaching. The integration of dental students and dentists to the team at Mabuhay clinic represented exactly the educational, interprofessional, community and patient care missions of our academic institution and the clinic.

“As a result of this rich experience, and to provide the best patient care, an interprofessional screening tool and an outcomes of care screening tool will be developed and piloted in this clinic,” he added.

And that deserves a hearty “Mabuhay” and fist-pump.

Andy Evangelista contributed to this story.
 

Jeffory Eaton, DDS, and Antonio Ragadio, DDS, are the 2017 recipients of the UCSF Dental Alumni Association’s Medal of Honor. Drs. Eaton and Ragadio were recognized at the DAA’s April 7 luncheon during UCSF Alumni Weekend.

Dr. Eaton, a 1983 graduate of the UCSF School of Dentistry, has been a volunteer faculty member since 1994. He has been one of the longest continuously serving volunteer members of the Community Dental Clinic program, and became its faculty director in 2015. He also maintains a private practice in San Mateo.

He has participated in numerous dental missions outside the U.S., was awarded the volunteer faculty of the year award by the Dean’s Office in 1995, and by the students in 1995, 2001, and 2012 for his work with the Community Dental Clinic. Dr. Eaton was a Chancellors Award nominee in 2016 for community service, and has been selected to deliver the commencement address for the 2017 graduating class at UCSF.

Prior to dental school, Dr. Eaton worked as a professional musician in Las Vegas, performing with musicians such as the Righteous Brothers, Lou Rawls, Dionne Warwick, the Doobie Brothers and Carlos Santana.

Dr. Ragadio, a 1976 graduate of the School of Dentistry, is a professor of preventive and restorative dental science; he has been a faculty member for more than two decades. His ongoing involvement in outreach and recruitment of underrepresented minority students at UCSF dates back to his student days. He is a founder and faculty adviser of the Filipino Dental Student Coalition. A former DAA president, Dr. Ragadio currently serves on the DAA executive council.

Dr. Ragadio’s private practice is in an underserved area of San Francisco, and he is an active volunteer in humanitarian activities focusing on dentally underserved populations. He also lends his time and talents as a mentor to both students and new faculty members in the School of Dentistry.

Current recipient of the 2017 outstanding faculty award from the American College of Dentists, Dr. Ragadio is a member of the American College of Dentists, Omicron Kappa Upsilon, Delta Sigma Delta, Filipino Dental Practitioners Inc., San Francisco Dental Society, California Dental Association, and the American Dental Association.

The UCSF Dental Alumni Association Medal of Honor, established in 1981, is the most prestigious award the DAA bestows on a living alumnus. Eighty-one awards have been bestowed to UCSF alumni dentists and hygienists since the award’s inception. The award is presented annually to an individual or individuals who have demonstrated exceptional dedication, service and contributions in the following areas: the Dental Alumni Association, the UCSF School of Dentistry, the dental/dental hygiene professions, and the community.

Distinguished guests at the Dental Alumni Association luncheon, part of the 2017 UCSF Alumni Weekend. Photo by Elisabeth Fall

UCSF Alumni Weekend drew more than 500 School of Dentistry alumni to events April 7-8 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.

The highlight of the weekend was the recognition luncheon on April 7, at which Antonio Ragadio, DDS, and Jeffory Eaton, DDS, were awarded the UCSF Dental Alumni Association Medal of Honor. More than 300 alumni and friends attended the ceremony, which also paid tribute to the class of 1967, celebrating its 50th reunion.

Participants in the Dental Alumni Association's student research competition

The association’s 121st Scientific Session was dedicated to the late John C. Greene, DMD, dean emeritus of the School of Dentistry who passed away in October 2016. Six students were winners in the DAA student research competition: Nick Chang (mentor: Daniel Fried), sixth place; Bronwyn Hagan (Jeffrey Bush), fifth; Kei Katsura (Pamela Den Besten), fourth; Grace Zhu (Rich Schneider), third; Sarah Wong (Ralph Marcucio), second; and Manabu Manandhar (Sarah Knox), first.

African-American dental alumni hosted an event for alumni and current students.

Coinciding with Alumni Weekend, an independently held dinner party by the School of Dentistry’s African-American alumni group drew alumni and current students alike for an evening of fun and fellowship.

Overall, close to 1,700 alumni across UCSF attended this year’s Alumni Weekend.
 

Throughout his adult life, Herbert Gabriel, DDS, held an abiding fondness for the UCSF School of Dentistry.

A 1943 graduate of a combined DDS/orthodontics program, Dr. Gabriel found his calling at UCSF — and his bride, the former Betty Houghton, who was a student in the School of Nursing when they met. Over the ensuing years, the Gabriels lent their support to their respective schools.

Fittingly, Dr. Gabriel — who passed away in December 2015; Mrs. Gabriel predeceased him in 2004 — had a parting gift for the university: bequests for scholarships in the schools of dentistry and nursing.

A gift of $600,000 will be used to establish one or more scholarships in the orthodontics division of the School of Dentistry in Dr. Gabriel’s name; another gift of $600,000 will establish one or more scholarships in the School of Nursing in Betty Gabriel’s name. The bequest also includes the proceeds from the sale of property; additional funds are anticipated when that occurs.

“Herb Gabriel was one of the most charming, and most generous, people I’ve ever met,” recalled John D.B. Featherstone, dean of the School of Dentistry. “He was a tremendous advocate, for both nursing and dentistry.”

Over the years, Dr. Gabriel gave generously in support of orthodontic resident research — averaging $50,000 a year. In response, an unofficial “Herb Gabriel Day” each year gave orthodontic residents the opportunity to show their research to Dr. Gabriel.

“This very generous scholarship endowment will provide critical support to our graduate orthodontic residents’ educational expenses, and comes at a time when high student debts make it difficult to many deserving students to pursue their specialty training,” said Sunil Kapila, BDS, MS, PhD, chair of the Division of Orthodontics. “The scholarships will also help us maintain our competitive edge in recruiting the best residents to our orthodontics specialty program.”

Dr. Gabriel’s support was equally generous to the School of Nursing, even after his wife’s passing. In 2012, then-Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann and her husband, Nicholas Hellmann, gave $1 million to be divided equally between the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy — contingent upon a matching gift — for student support: the first Chancellor’s Endowed Scholarships at UCSF. Dr. Gabriel provided the matching gift, in his wife’s memory, for student scholarships in the School of Nursing.

The twin gifts in Dr. Gabriel’s final bequest are expected to endow scholarships in perpetuity: an enduring symbol of the Gabriels’ generosity.

By Nicholas Weiler

Researchers hope to one day use stem cells to heal burns, patch damaged heart tissue, even grow kidneys and other transplantable organs from scratch. This dream edges closer to reality every year, but one of the enduring puzzles for stem cell researchers is how these remarkable cells know when it’s time for them to expand in numbers and transform into mature, adult cells in order to renew injured or aging tissue.

The answer to this crucial decision-making process may lie in a most remarkable organ: the front tooth of the mouse.

“As we grow older our teeth start to wear out, and in nature, once you don’t have your teeth anymore, you die. As a result, mice and many other animals – from elephants to some primates – can grow their teeth continuously,” said UC San Francisco’s Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, a professor of orofacial sciences in UCSF’s School of Dentistry and of pediatrics in the School of Medicine. “Our lab’s objective is to learn the rules that let mouse incisors grow continuously to help us one day grow teeth in the lab, but also to help us identify general principles that could enable us to understand the processes of tissue renewal much more broadly."

In a new study, published online April 27, 2017, in Cell Stem Cell, Jimmy Hu, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Klein laboratory, has discovered that signals from the surrounding tissue are responsible for triggering these dental stem cells to leave their normal state of dormancy, hop on the conveyor belt of the growing tooth, and begin the process of transforming into mature tooth tissue.

>> Read the complete article on UCSF.edu.

Dean John D.B. Featherstone's May column:

It should come as no surprise that faculty are a key part of the engine that keeps the School of Dentistry operating. Each and every one of them is integral to our educational mission.

Our full-time faculty members have made teaching their life. Some have gone out into the world but have come back; others have built their entire career in academia. Some have worked predominately in research; others have been exclusively in clinical teaching. All have played an important role.

We also could not function as a school without our part-time faculty, particularly those on the clinical side, who often are or have been in private practice but have decided to teach as well. This truly is a gift to the school — they could be making much more in private practice. Many are motivated by a desire to contribute, to give back in thanks for their education; for this, we are very much appreciative.

Similarly, our volunteer faculty, who primarily are in our clinical teaching arena, also add to our teaching: Without them, it would be difficult to provide the level, quality and amount of clinical teaching we do.

Research also is key to our enterprise. We have led all U.S. dental schools in National Institutes of Health research funding for 25 straight years. At the recent International Association for Dental Research general session, held here in San Francisco, faculty awardees included Ophir Klein, MD, PhD; Daniel Fried, PhD; and Grayson Marshall, DDS, MPH, PhD. Our researchers travel around the globe, discussing their work. This is just the tip of the iceberg of our faculty research, which is making groundbreaking discoveries in all aspects of oral health.

But teaching and research do not tell the entire story. For those who are at half time or more, service is a significant part of their duties; much of that service falls under committee participation. This, too, is essential work: Without the multitude of committees we have, we wouldn’t function as a university. It is part of UC’s mission: Shared governance — faculty as well as administration — is our watchword.

Our faculty, like their counterparts elsewhere on campus, sit on a broad range of committees. Some of the standing ones include our school’s admissions committee, the Dentistry Faculty Council and the campuswide Committee on Educational Policy.

Equally significant are the ad hoc committees that address many important issues. Our committee spearheading curriculum revision is one such group with a significant charge. No less important but with a broader focus is the deans and chairs group, made up of department chairs, associate deans and the chair of the Faculty Council; this group, to large extent, makes the major decisions for the operation of the School of Dentistry.

Even as we salute our faculty, we seek to support them as well. Development opportunities and mentoring programs exist both at the school and campus level. Faculty retreats focus on both work and growth.

We recognize that all the functions performed by each of our faculty are essential parts of the fabric of our school, and of dentistry as a whole. Research, clinical teaching, lecturing, supervising graduate students and visiting scientists, working in the preclinical labs — all are equally important.

In acknowledgement, I offer a huge thank-you to all our faculty for what you do, what you have done, and what you will continue to do into the future.

The School of Dentistry announces the launch of a new educational resource, the Learner Success Center. The center will give educational support to potential applicants, students, faculty and staff. 

Spearheaded by Sara Hughes, MBE, associate dean for education and student affairs, the center will see the reorganization of these existing school divisions: admissions and outreach, curriculum support, and student services. Over time, the center will, following the re-organization and co-location of existing staff and recruitment of staff and faculty, offer a one-stop shop for all learner inquiries and support needs. 

"Over the next few months, the team and I will be looking to develop an efficient, minimally disruptive, reconfiguration of education administration," said Dr. Hughes. "We will share our vision and goals in response to the needs of our learners, faculty and staff, which will underpin our ambitions as described in our strategic plan and emerging education strategy."

The center is actively recruiting for two faculty leadership positions — predoctoral program director and postdoctoral program director — to help further develop and transform the learner environment.

Related links:

• Predoctoral Program Director/Postdoctoral Program Director
• Learner Success Center organization chart

Matthew Finzen, DDS, MD, a School of Dentistry alumnus, died unexpectedly May 12 in North Carolina. Dr. Finzen, the son of faculty member Fritz Finzen, DDS, was in his third year of the University of North Carolina’s oral and maxillofacial surgery program. He was 29.

The younger Dr. Finzen was a popular member of the class of 2014. During his time here, he served as president of the Psi Omega dental fraternity.

"Matt was well known to everyone in the OMFS department,” said Jennifer Perkins, DDS, MD. “He was an exceptional student, an incredibly likeable person, and a leader among his peers. He was an incredibly bright light who will be profoundly missed."

Dr. Biana Roykh, DDS, UCSF Dental Center clinic director and associate professor, concurred. “I knew Matt to be a lively, upbeat and enthusiastic student,” she recalled. “He was adored by his classmates and embraced life at UCSF fully. He had a good sense of humor, like his dad.”

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at St. Anselm Catholic Church, 97 Shady Lane, Ross. A rosary service will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 19, at St. Anselm.

The Finzen family prefers donations be made to:

Matt Finzen OMFS Resident Enrichment Fund
Dental Foundation of NC
1090 First Dental Building, Campus Box 7450
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7450

or to a charity of your choice.
 

Brennan Crilly has joined the School of Dentistry as admissions coordinator for outreach and yield. Reporting to Julia Hwang, director of admissions and outreach, Crilly will coordinate the school's outreach and yield efforts for the predoctoral program, and will work with the post-baccalaureate program.

Crilly previously worked at Cal Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in New Student & Transition Programs. There he oversaw the annual open house event welcoming 40,000 prospective and current students, alumni and community members; summer orientation; and Welcome Week.