Spotlight

Winter 2023 Newsletter

John Sunwoo, MD, and Ruth O’Hara, PhD are the principal investigators at Stanford on a newly awarded U01 grant from NIH/NIDCR.

Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery and, by courtesy, of Dermatology,Chief of Head & Neck Surgery, Director of Head & Neck Cancer Research

Director, Spectrum, Senior Associate Dean, Research and Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor

David Lam

Dr. T. Galt and Lee DeHaven Atwood Endowed Professor and Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Associate Dean for Medical Integration at UoP

Rebecca Moazzez

Henry Sutro Family Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry and Director of the Center for Innovation and Translation at UoP

The Department’s Division of Head & Neck Surgery has been collaborating with the University of the Pacific (UoP) Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco to develop impactful clinical, research, and educational initiatives that span the two institutions, particularly on the subject of premalignant oral lesions and oral cancer.

Recently, investigators at UoP and Stanford were awarded a $3.8 million, 5-year NIH U01 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to develop a program designed to train oral health clinician-scientists. The program will engage research faculty, clinical faculty, students, and residents to conduct practice-based research in three areas: (1) oral cancer and premalignant lesions, (2) sleep medicine, and (3) developing the Pacific-Stanford biobank. Importantly, the program will utilize the resources of the Stanford Spectrum CTSA.

“We are extremely excited to formalize our research and educational collaboration with our colleagues at the University of the Pacific. We have collaborated for several years with Dr. David Lam and are thrilled to be part of this new initiative to train the next generation of oral health clinician-scientists.”

– John Sunwoo, MD

The principal investigators of the new U01 grant are Dr. David Lam and Dr. Rebecca Moazzez at the University of the Pacific and Dr. Ruth O’Hara and Dr. John Sunwoo at Stanford. Dr. Lam is the Dr. T. Galt and Lee DeHaven Atwood Endowed Professor and Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Associate Dean for Medical Integration at UoP. Dr. Moazzez is the Henry Sutro Family Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry and Director of the Center for Innovation and Translation at UoP. Dr. O'Hara is the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Stanford School of Medicine, and Director and Principal Investigator of the Spectrum CTSA. Dr. Sunwoo is the Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Interim Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford.