The UCLA School of Dentistry has been awarded $15 million for
research into detection of oral cancer in saliva, a field in which
the department has recently taken several large strides.
The National Institutes of Health will make two grants to the
School of Dentistry, totaling $15 million, the university announced
Tuesday.
“This is a fantastic achievement by our faculty
members,” said Dr. No-Hee Park, dean of the dentistry school.
“This will set our School of Dentistry as a center of
excellence for diagnostic research.”
Leading the research is Professor David Wong, associate dean of
research at the School of Dentistry and director of the UCLA Dental
Research Institute.
Earlier this year, Wong and his colleagues developed effective
detection methods for symptoms of oral cancer in saliva.
“The UCLA projects are part of a broad effort by the
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research,” Dr.
Eleni Kousvelari, acting director of the Institute’s Center
for Biotechnology and Innovation, said in an e-mail statement.
“This effort holds tremendous promise for the eventual use
of saliva to monitor changes in health status that signal cancers,
diabetes, infectious diseases and a variety of other
conditions.”
The first grant, of $12.5 million, is intended to develop a
prototype of the Oral Fluid Nanosensor Test, a handheld diagnostic
device about the size of a TV remote which can be easily used by
doctors to diagnose patients. The aim is to move tests out of
laboratories and into clinics, allowing earlier detection of
saliva-based oral cancer, according to a statement released by the
university.
Chih-Ming Ho, one of the key collaborators on the OFNASET, was
optimistic about how the grant would affect research.
“This grant … will realize the application of modern
technologies, in a way that will revolutionize the diagnosis of
oral cancer,” he said.
Park said the researchers who received the grant are working
closely with the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science to
develop the OFNASET prototype.
Representatives from GeneFluidics, Beckton Dickinson, USC, the
University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota will
participate in the research.
The grant will be shared among these universities, but the UCLA
School of Dentistry will receive the majority of the funding.
The second grant, of $2.5 million, will go to support studies of
Sjögren’s Syndrome, an auto-immune disease which
manifests itself in dryness of the mouth and eyes and eventually
causes the glands to attack themselves, resulting in fatigue and
other serious symptoms.
The syndrome affects over four million Americans, 90 percent of
whom are women, according to The Sjögren’s Syndrome
Foundation.
According to the UCLA press release, scientists might be able to
find new uses for the OFNASET in detecting oral diseases in the
future.