Formally launching in mid-2022, the Center for Innovation and Translation is an exciting new venture that will drive clinical research partnerships to support the oral and overall health of people in the United States and beyond.
The Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry’s location in the San Francisco Bay Area puts it at the heart of innovation across many fields, including biotechnology, big data, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies of all kinds. In support of the Dugoni School’s purpose to help people live healthy lives, the center will bring together internal and external collaborators to develop innovation and translate clinical research into practice.
The center will be a base for both commercial and noncommercial academic-driven activities to help turn ideas into reality.
Building Partnerships to Advance Clinical Research, Support Oral Health and Help People Live Healthy Lives
Goals
The Center's goals are to:
- Facilitate small pilot innovative activities and clinical studies to drive evidence for larger, better informed and more significant grant applications for translational and clinical research.
- Continue and expand commercial collaborations for showcasing innovation and serial sponsored clinical research studies.
- Engage current faculty in innovation and clinical research projects of any and all varieties, building this research culture into the clinical workforce.
- Serve as home for the Dugoni School’s “Biobank” to facilitate a whole new era of patient sampling and clinical assessment and investigation for global academic and commercial access. Work will include big-data analysis to find links between oral and general health; use of salivary diagnostics to improve our ability to diagnose and treat oral and systemic conditions; research into salivary biomarkers through metagenomic analysis; and other studies of the oral microbiome.
- Expand practice-based research and innovative activities by engaging our alumni community.
- Launch multi-center clinical studies funded either by commercial companies or noncommercial entities such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- Support scientific value and income generation in parallel through clinical research studies funded and sponsored by commercial companies or funded by the company and sponsored by the dental school.
Currently being formed, the Center's advisory board will include senior administrators and leaders from the Dugoni School as well as representatives from outside the school. Also included are representatives of organizations such as the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, practice-based research networks and commercial technology companies. The board will also include a microbiome specialist, and a patient or public representative. In the future, the Center for Innovation and Translation is expected to include a clinical research manager, research nurses, research dentists and statisticians/methodologists.
Dr. Rebecca Moazzez joined the Dugoni School in 2021 to lead the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry. Previously, she was professor of Prosthodontics and Oral Clinical Research at King’s College London school of Dentistry in the UK, where she began teaching in 1998, focusing on predoctoral and specialty prosthodontics. In 2013, she also served as the college’s founding director of the Oral Clinical Research Unit, which has attracted over $7M of funding since its conception. She has over 60 publications in refereed journals and has a personal grant income of $4M. She also has built collaborations with a wide range of companies involved in oral health, clinical research and technology.
If you have questions about clinical research activities or advisory board involvement, or would like to learn more, please contact:
Director of the Center for Innovation and Translation
Rebecca Moazzez BDS, MSc, PhD, FDSRCS, FDSRCS (Rest.), MRD
Professor, Chair of Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry
Henry Sutro Family Endowed Chair in Restorative Dentistry
University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
155 Fifth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel. 415.780.2068 | rmoazzez@pacific.edu
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University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
155 Fifth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
