NSU CDM Impressions Fall/Winter 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 21 When Alexandru Movila, Ph.D., arrived two years ago to be reunited at NSU’s College of Dental Medicine (CDM), with his mentor, Toshihisa Kawai, D.D.S., Ph.D., they knew it would help advance the research they began together at the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Between them, they have received more than $1 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for projects on osteoimmunology in periodontitis, peri-implantitis, periapical periodontitis, and other diseases that develop lytic bone lesions (spots of bone damage that result from cancerous plasma cells building up in bone marrow). They also received supplemental funds to employ students in their laboratories, specifically minori- ties identified as underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. BONE REGENERATION According to the NIH, Kawai’s research—“Role of Platelets in Periodontal Bone Remodeling”— is relevant to the future of public health. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion states that more than 46 percent of the U.S. population age 30 and older has periodontitis, of which pathogens and the molecular changes in the bone’s regenerative response have not been established. This groundbreaking study will examine the changes of normal mechanical, physical, and bio- chemical functions caused by platelets in periodontitis and seek to clarify the molecular mecha- nism that arrests bone regenera- tion in periodontitis—the gum infection that damages the soft tissue and destroys the bone that supports teeth. Kawai said he hopes his research will lead to developing platelet-based bone regeneration therapy by mani- pulating the molecular structure of platelets. AGING POPULATION Movila received two NIH grants for his research projects: