Research at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute

The research mission of the UCL Eastman Dental Institute is to promote oral health and well-being by advancing knowledge of the causes of orofacial disease and the prevention, repair and regeneration of resultant tissue abnormalities, and to translate such findings into clinical practice.

The main strategy at the Eastman is that all research has to be of international priority, productive of high impact outputs, sustainable and potentially translatable. Both the research mission and strategy reflect the internationally recognised need for increased understanding to enhance orofacial and systemic health, and quality of life and well-being (see Esteem). Research and associated funding has been focused to encompass many of the cutting edge areas of translational research which overlap with tissue engineering and wound healing, control of orofacial infectious disease, links between orofacial and systemic disease and outcomes and evaluation of treatments for orofacial diseases.

Clinical research is part of the research strategy following the completion of the RAE process. It aims to integrate the major findings of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering and Microbial Diseases divisions into clinical applications in such a way as to provide a pathway to translational research and the improvement of the health and life quality of the patient.

All staff undertake research and scholarship that fosters the attitude and background essential for providing quality graduate programmes of instruction. Indeed, Eastman graduates have the opportunity to address an extensive variety of research questions. The organisation of research at the Eastman allows inventiveness and originality to be cultivated in a research environment that is rich in world class scholars supported by a comprehensive infrastructure.

Eastman research is represented by three interdisciplinary divisions:

Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
Research focuses on the effects of novel synthetic and natural biomaterials on appropriate in vitro cell systems seeking to understand the fundamental phenotypic and functional responses of both soft and hard tissue cells to novel biomaterial compositions.

Clinical Research
The research focus of the Clinical research division is to improve oral and general health through clinically applicable translational research and changes in clinical practice.

Microbial Diseases
Research in this division is concerned with the aetiology, pathogenesis and control of diseases caused by oral micro-organisms, other members of the indigenous microbiota and bacteria associated with skeletal pathology.

This page last modified 17 July, 2009 by Karen Widdowson