Fatima N. Syed-Picard, PhD, assistant professor of oral and craniofacial sciences, School of Dental Medicine, and assistant professor of bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering, will present a Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar, “Thinking Outside the Mouth: Leveraging Dental Stem Cells for Regenerative Therapies throughout the Body.”

Registration for the lecture is required to receive event instructions.

Topic Overview:

The tooth comprises multiple diverse tissues that are rich in easily accessible postnatal stem cells. Due to their neural crest developmental origins, stem cells derived from dental tissues offer a unique advantage over other postnatal stem cell populations for regenerating neural crest-derived tissues throughout the body. The Syed-Picard research group focuses on engineering novel dental stem cell-based, scaffold-free tissues for use as unique experimental models to study development or disease and as therapeutic tools to regenerate dental, osseous, ocular and neural tissues. Scaffold-free tissue engineering promotes cells to produce and organize their endogenous extracellular matrix (ECM) into a three-dimensional structure. These tissues can facilitate the retention of stem cells at sites of injury, addressing challenges associated with cellular injection therapies, and utilize a natural structure that overcomes complications posed by exogenous scaffold materials.

In this talk, Syed-Picard will discuss her recent innovations in developing dental pulp stem cell (DPSC)-based, scaffold-free tissues to treat facial nerve injuries. Current challenges associated with treating facial nerve injuries include prolonged repair times and axonal misdirection, which lead to reduced functional recovery and facial synkinesis. DPSCs endogenously express neurotrophic factors, a class of growth factors known to promote axon regeneration. Syed-Picard will present data showing that scaffold-free DPSC tissues can act as bioactive bandages, providing paracrine signals to significantly improve axon regeneration and functional outcomes in preclinical facial nerve injury models. These engineered tissues can augment current treatment modalities to accelerate and enhance recovery. Syed-Picard will also present her ongoing work engineering novel scaffold-free nerve conduits to bridge severe segmental nerve injuries. These unique conduits comprise tropic DPSCs that promote axon regeneration and an aligned ECM that orients axonal growth. Scaffold-free DPSC technologies directly address the clinical challenges associated with the current treatments of facial nerve injuries by accelerating regeneration, accurately guiding axon growth and improving functional outcomes.