Portland, Ore.
The Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry announces the following appointments and awards:
Theresa Madden, D.D.S., Ph.D., recently was promoted to associate professor with tenure in the OHSU School of Dentistry's Department of Periodontology. In addition to teaching residents, dental and medical students, Madden conducts clinical, laboratory, and practice-based research related to periodontal disease and systemic health. Madden serves on the OHSU Heart Research Center executive committee and the regional leadership council of the American Diabetes Association. She is regional director for Project MAINSTREAM, providing national interdisciplinary faculty training in substance abuse education (www.projectmainstream.net). She serves as a study investigator for MR.OS (oral bone loss in men at risk for osteoporosis), PAVE (periodontitis and vascular events), and the PROH and PRECENDENT practice-research networks. Madden has studied naturopathic and traditional Chinese medicines to determine their safety and potential to improve oral health.Curtis Machida, Ph.D., recently was promoted to research professor in the OHSU School of Dentistry's Department of Integrative Biosciences. Machida joined the OHSU School of Dentistry as a research associate professor in 2002, conducting research into adrenergic receptors, which serve as important regulators of central nervous system-mediated behavior and several brain functions, including mood, memory, neuroendocrine control, and stimulation of autonomic function. Alterations in adrenergic receptors have been implicated in the pathophysiology of affective psychiatric disorders, including depression.
Machida also recently received a two-year $302,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health to examine a group of molecules called nuclear LIM interactor-interacting factors that serve as repressors for specific classes of adrenergic receptors in the brain and heart. Machida and his team recently identified a molecule known as dullard, which is one member of the NLI-IF gene family. The research conducted for the newest grant may someday help scientists understand the molecular basis of depression and how antidepressants work. Overexpression of this same class of adrenergic receptors in the heart also leads to congestive heart failure and the identification of potential repressors could lead to new drugs to treat cardiac failure.
Marvin P. Levin, D.D.S., recently was named professor emeritus in the OHSU School of Dentistry's Department of Periodontology. Levin joined the School of Dentistry in 1980 as an assistant professor and a year later became an associate professor. In addition to teaching, he has participated in many school and dental community activities, including a one-year appointment in 2001 as interim director of the graduate periodontology program. Levin currently teaches periodontology two days a week.
The 105-year-old School of Dentistry is Oregon's only dental school and one of two dental schools in the Northwest. More than 80 percent of Oregon's dentists graduated from the OHSU School of Dentistry. For more information about the OHSU School of Dentistry, visit www.ohsu.edu/sod