Metro Lex News

Santamaria awarded CCTS Pilot Award

The University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) congratulates Dr. Mauro Santamaria on being awarded the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) Pilot Award. 

The award was given for Santamaria’s study, “Understanding mechanisms of oral mucosa wound healing: A step toward precision therapy for vulnerable populations.” 

The purpose of the CCTS Pilot Award is to fund pilot projects that strengthen the development of sustainable partnerships between academic research and community stakeholders for translational research. 

Santamaria received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Sao Paulo and his Master of Science degree and PhD in Clinical Periodontology from the University of Campinas – Piracicaba Dental School. 

He has published more than 150 peer reviewed manuscripts in Portuguese and English. 

As well as working with numerous groups of researchers inside and outside of the United States to evaluate treatments for periodontitis, Santamaria wants to expand the knowledge of mechanistic ways of oral mucosa wound healing.  

“This is the first step in order to better understand the mechanisms of oral mucosa wound healing and the role of the microbiome during this process. 

Therefore, we are going to study the healing from patients who do not have any systemic relevant systemic condition. 

But this study will for sure be expanded to evaluate the healing of people who have diseases, such as diabetes, smokers, and others,” shares Santamaria.

Stressing the importance of researching wound healing, Santamaria said, “All surgical therapies in dentistry, such as tooth extractions, implant placement, mucogingival surgeries, different periodontal surgeries, and others need a proper healing process to succeed. 

A surgical procedure that doesn’t heal well may not have the expected clinical outcome, which can lead to the need of another surgical procedure. 

Therefore, an undesired healing process can increase patients’ morbidity/pain; can generate undesired clinical, functional, and esthetical outcomes; additional costs to redo the procedure or to deal with the consequences of the healing problems.”

In this study, specific inflammatory markers and the microbiome present during the oral mucosa healing process will be evaluated.  

This CCTS funding will generate data for a future NIH grant application that we will look at a bigger picture and evaluate other aspects of the oral mucosa healing process,” added Santamaria.

Original source can be found here.