Dental oral craniofacial tissue regeneration consortia

Many factors contribute the limited translation including technology development without a clinical context, use of animal models lacking clinical relevance, inability to demonstrate a superior lack of functional outcome against a standard of care and lack of a large dental and craniofacial presence in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

To overcome these limitations and develop resources and strategies to advance translation of innovative tissue engineering and regenerative medicine technologies in the DOC space, the National Institutes of Health (NIDCR) established the DOCTRC Program.

The DOCTRC Program involves clinicians from the beginning of technology development and is aimed at developing resources and strategies for regenerating DOC tissues. In 2017, stage II of this program was launched and two national resource centers were established: The Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Resource Center and the Center for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Tissue and Organ Regeneration (C-DOCTOR), a consortium of California universities.

This symposium features talks from Martha Somerman, Director of the NIDCR, Bethesda, Md.; Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dental Research William Giannobile, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Yang Chai, Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles and Charles Sfeir, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. The event organizers and co-chairs are David Kohn, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Jeff Lotz, University of California, San Francisco.

The 47th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR), held in conjunction with the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), featured a symposium titled "Dental Oral Craniofacial Tissue Regeneration Consortia: A New Paradigm." The AADR/CADR Annual Meeting is in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., USA from March 21-24, 2018.