Dental News - NYU College of Dentistry shares award for oral bacteria identification study

New York University

Tue. 5 January 2010

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NEW YORK, NY, USA: Dr Deepak Saxena, a microbiologist at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD), and Dr Anup Singh, an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, part of the US Department of Energy, are partnering to develop a technology that will facilitate bacterial identification. Their study was recently funded with a three-year, US$1.63 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the NIH.

Although the destructive effects of oral bacteria in producing dental caries (cavities), periodontal disease, and other infectious conditions are well known, the identities of many of the microbes responsible for these conditions, as well as their physical characteristics and ability to grow and sustain themselves, remain a mystery. In fact, only half of the bacteria residing in the human oral cavity have been identified.

The research team takes advantage of recent advances in gene sequencing that enable microbial analysis without lab cultivation. Using probes composed of small, incomplete oral bacteria nucleic acid sequences, the researchers will locate bacterial cells with matching DNA sequences from dozens of saliva samples that have been arrayed on a glass chip. Probes that bind to complementary sequences will be marked with a fluorescent dye so that investigators can examine them under a microscope to confirm that they have been properly matched.

Dr Singh and his team plan to locate cells from a dozen unknown oral bacterial species and establish a bank of cells that can be manipulated in subsequent sequencing studies designed to fully decode a microbe’s genome. “This will help in the development of genetic tests to identify those at risk for a variety of infectious diseases,” said Dr Saxena.

(Edited by Claudia Salwiczek, DTI)

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