Senior Member of the Staff
Associate Clinical Professor of Periodontology,
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
email:
Texas Technological University, B.A., 1962, Chemistry
University of Texas-Health Science Center at Houston, D.D.S., 1962, Dentistry
University of Rochester, M.S., 1969, Dental Research
University of Rochester, Ph.D., 1970, Pharmacology
Translational Research Group
The Translational Research Group is an unofficial group of scientists who share a guiding interest in developing products, systems or programs for use by people. Principals of this group include:
1. Belief that the maintenance of an effective clinical research facility is important to the future of Forsyth.
2. Belief that the best clinical research has a scientific laboratory basis.
3. Belief that development of products that people can use to better their life is an important measure of scientific achievement.
4. Belief that scientists can welcome and work with business to develop products that are of great benefit to society.
The Translational Research Group functions by creating a collaborative environment within Forsyth that is conducive to the development of new ideas through clinical studies augmented by laboratory research. Results of our work have led to a wide array of discoveries and fruitful collaborations. These include:
Specific expertise available in the group include guidance in:
In addition, many of our research efforts are focused on facilitating health care delivery both in the U.S. and abroad. Our emphasis is on facilitating the movement of ideas to reality; our way of saying "translational research."
Areas of current research
Systemic Disease Associations
The human body is a truly integrated system. The bacteria that trigger periodontal disease have ways of making you bleed. Then they have ways of getting into your blood stream and making other conditions like heart disease worse. They also trigger the release of hormone-like substances that make diabetes worse. You can actually improve a patient's diabetes by treating gum disease. We have found the DNA of oral bacteria in such disparate locations as the plaques that cause arthrosclerosis and the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Understanding the meaning of these observations is crucial to understanding our health and is a current emphasis in our research.
A study is currently underway at Beth Israel Hospital in which oral disease is being studied in patients with metabolic syndrome. The objective of this study is to determine factors that are common to both periodontal disease and metabolic syndrome. Maryann Cugini and Constantino Floros are currently making measurements and collecting samples. Dr. Francine Welty (a research cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), Dr. Steve Offenbacher and Dr. Jim Beck (University of North Carolina) are collaborators in this study.
The Forsyth Institute has helped to provide dental care to the children of Kuwait for more than 25 years. At the request of the State of Kuwait, Forsyth helped Dr. Jawad Behbehani inaugurate a model program in 1983 under the direction of Drs. Paul DePaola, Pramod Soparkar and Mary Tavares to provide oral health care, prevention and education in Kuwait. The program provides free dental screenings, prevention services and education in the schools. Currently it operates in 40 clinics at six centers and 100 school clinics throughout the country treating over 250,000 children annually.
In response to the world epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes, we have recently proposed a collaborative research agreement with the Dasman Center for Research and Treatment of Diabetes in Kuwait. Our proposal is to evaluate factors in school-age children of Kuwait that would potentially lead to and/or predict T2DM, in a longitudinal cohort study design. These studies would be carried out using our existing infrastructure in The Kuwait-Forsyth Children’s Oral Health Program which provides access to approximately 225,000 school children in Kuwait. In this proposal, as part of each child’s regular dental examination, we would collect saliva and dental plaque from 10,000 children. We will also collect nutritional data, collect data on exercise and evaluate the classic measures of metabolic syndrome by non-invasive measurements. Salivary levels of hormones that are associated with energy metabolism, salivary protein and salivary bacteria will be analyzed to provide an indication of body control factors that are in operation. DNA will be collected and stored for later genetic analysis. Dr Mary Tavares, Dr. Pramod Soparkar and Maryann Cugini will participate in this study.
Diagnosis
The oral cavity is clearly an important focus for diagnostic development. Our studies suggest that most, if not all, human disease conditions may be detected through appropriate analysis of saliva. By using saliva as a diagnostic, we are doing so much more than early diagnosis of disease. Saliva-based diagnostics are really a potential health surveillance tool, which may allow us to continually monitor the health of an individual. Our goal in this work is to help keep healthy people healthy by providing an early warning system. This is the cornerstone of our work in Kuwait.
Local Drug Delivery
The oral cavity is one of the most accessible environments for research in local drug delivery. The use of local drug delivery devices for treatment of periodontal disease was pioneered in our group. In 1995, Dr. Goodson was awarded the International Association of Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Award in Pharmacology for this research. These devices, which release small amounts of active drugs over time directly to the site of infection, have several advantages over alternative delivery systems. They are particularly well suited to treat isolated periodontal breakdown in the maintenance phase of therapy.
Current work in this area includes delivery of anti-inflammatory agents and agents that modulate bone resorption. Sophisticated animal models and screening assays have been developed to identify agents most applicable in this environment. Prototype local drug delivery devices have been fabricated and tested. Dr. Hajime Sasaki, Dr. Steve Halem and Maryann Cugini are participating in these studies.
Phototherapy
Our work with The Laboratory of Applied Molecular Photomedicine, have resulted in studies that indicate that the growth of black-pigmented bacteria may be controlled by exposure to visible light in the blue light region. These studies began with the observation that light-assisted tooth whitening resulted in healthier gums. It has proceeded through laboratory analysis to indicate that visible light kills black-pigmented bacteria. It is now entering into a phase of discovering and then developing clinical applications of this finding. Dr. Nikos Soukos has been a thought-leader in this area where new developments occur frequently and clinical testing has been initiated.
Systemic Antibiotic and Anti-inflammatory Therapy
The use of systemic antibiotics have the advantage of treating the whole mouth and are particularly valuable in initial periodontal disease therapy. Through our research we have been able to determine that the combination of systemic antibiotics and extensive tooth cleaning can be more effective than expensive and painful surgical techniques. These studies have been conducted in collaboration with Dr. Anne Haffajee, Dr. Sig Socransky and Dr. Ricardo Teles of Forsyth, Dr, Hatice Hasturk, Dr. Tom Van Dyke of Boston University and Dr. Jan Lindhe, Dr. Jan Wennstrom and Dr. Anna Bogren of the University of Goteborg.
Studies on the anti-inflammatory use of omega-3 fatty acids are currently being conducted at Beth Israel Hospital and at Boston University Dental Clinic. These studies are testing the ability of these -3 fatty acids to reduce clinical measures of periodontal disease. These studies are being conducted with Dr. Steve Halem (Forsyth), Dr. Hatice Hasturk, Dr. Tom Van Dyke (Boston University) and Dr Asghar Naqvi (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center).
Preventative Dental Care
Support and continuation of the ForsythKids program has been a part of our translational research effort for many years. This program through the innovative leadership of Dr. Richard Niederman and Ellen Gould has provided preventative dental care for the children of the Boston metropolitan area for almost a decade. The unique model involving treatments that can be administered within the school environment has created a new means to prevent dental decay in children.
Soukos NS, Goodson JM. (2010) Photodynamic therapy in the control of oral biofilms. Periodontol. 2000 (In press.)
Bland, PS, Goodson JM, Gunsolley JC, Grossi SG, Otomo-Corgel J, Doherty F, Comiskey J. (2010) Association of antimicrobial and clinical efficacy: Periodontitis therapy with minocycline microspheres. J. Int. Acad. Periodontol. 12(1):11-19
Goodson JM, Groppo D, Halem S, Carpino E. (2009) Is obesity an oral bacterial disease? J. Dent. Res. 88(6):519-23.
Colombo APV, Boches SK, Cotton SL, Goodson JM, Kent R, Haffajee AD, Socransky SS, Hasturk H, Van Dyke TE, Dewhirst F, Paster BJ. (2009) Comparisons of subgingival microbial profiles of refractory periodontitis, severe periodontitis, and periodontal health using the human oral microbe identification microarray. J. Periodontol. 80(9):1421-1432.
Fontana CR, Abernethy AD, Som S, Ruggiero K, Doucette S, Marcantonio RAC, Boussios CI, Doukas AG, Kent R, Goodson JM, Tanner AC, Soukos NS. (2009) The antibacterial effect of photodynamic therapy in dental plaque-derived biofilms. J. Periodontal Res. 44(6):751-759.
Calil C, Liberato FL, Pereira AC, de Castro Meneghim M, Goodson JM, Groppo FC. ( 2009) The relationship between volatile sulphur compounds, tongue coating and periodontal disease. Int. J. Dent. Hyg. 7(4):251-255.
Niederman R, Gould E, Soncini J, Tavares M, Osborn V, Goodson JM (2008). A model for extending the reach of the traditional dental practice: the ForsythKids program. J. Am. Dent. Assoc. 139(8):1040-1050.
Hersh EV, Moore PA, Papas AS, Goodson JM, Navalta LA, Rogy S, et al. (2008) Reversal of soft-tissue local anesthesia with phentolamine mesylate in adolescents and adults. J. Am. Dent. Assoc. 139(8):1080-1093.
Tavares M, Goodson JM, Studen-Pavlovich D, Yagiela JA, Navalta LA, Rogy S, Rutherford B, Gordon S, Papas AS. (2008) Reversal of soft-tissue local anesthesia with phentolamine mesylate in pediatric patients. J. Am. Dent. Assoc. 139(8):1095-1104.
Goodson, Max and Kent, Ralph (2008). Disease Trials for Dental Drug Products. In: Wiley Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials Volume 2, p.67-73 (Ralph D’Agostino, Lisa Sullivan, Joseph Massaro, eds.) Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
