Theme: Stem Cell Biology in Craniofacial Tissues
Sponsored by: Craniofacial Biology, Pulp Biology and Regeneration
Description: Tooth bioengineering is currently a hot topic in dental research, but the bottleneck is how to get suitable cells to initiate the odontogenic program.  Classical tissue recombination experiments have shown that tooth develops through sequential and reciprocal interactions between oral epithelium and the underlying mesenchyme.  The very early tooth initiation signal comes from oral epithelium, which then transmits into the underlying mesenchyme for further tooth morphogenesis and tooth specific cell differentiations.  So far, more than 300 genes have been associated with tooth development.  However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying supernumerary tooth formation.  A small number of supernumerary teeth may be a common developmental dental anomaly, while multiple supernumerary teeth usually have a genetic component and are sometimes thought to represent a partial third dentition in humans.  Dental clinicians usually focus on tooth treatment and tooth alignment, but pay little attention on their potential genetic backgrounds.   By organizing this symposium, we hope to share the recent research progresses on tooth development and supernumerary tooth formation.  More importantly, we want to emphasize the significance of studying supernumerary teeth and to encourage dental clinicians to collaborate with basic scientists to further study the etiology and genetic mechanisms underlying supernumerary teeth, which may provide clues for re-activating or reprogramming adult oral tissues for tooth regeneration.  The end result will ideally be a more optimal tooth replacement therapy that results from the integration of clinical dentistry and basic biology.
Learning Objectives:
To draw attention of dental clinicians on the significance of these work and to encourage them to collaborate with basic researchers to further analyze the etiology and genetic mechanisms underlying supernumerary tooth formation.
To share our studies on supernumerary teeth
To pave ways on tooth bio-engineering and tooth regeneration.