Center for Oral and Craniofacial Biology

(Approved by the Board of Regents, 1994)
Paul L. Fidel, PhD, Director

The Center of Excellence in Oral and Craniofacial Biology is a multidisciplinary center to provide adequate resources to promote and facilitate research, intellectual stimulation, and a network for research opportunities and collaboration in oral health. The Center serves as a nucleus for both clinical and basic science research in the oral and craniofacial region. Clinical research efforts currently center on periodontal disease and restoration. The basic science efforts currently center on oral infectious diseases, inflammation, biomaterials, and cancer. A Statistical Core and Research Facilities Core with state-of-the-art molecular biology and microscopy equipment aid the research effort.

The Center also serves an educational role through the training of predoctoral and postdoctoral students and clinicians throughout the State of Louisiana. Many Center faculty are currently conducting research through federal, industrial, and private foundation grants, and the Center has been funded by NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant to develop promising junior faculty into scientific independence and provide additional infrastructure to the research enterprise.