Group Leads
Jason Brown is a Lecturer in Oral Sciences and Programme Lead Coordinator for the Oral Sciences MSc course. He has had a long-standing research interest in understanding the microbial and host-pathogen interactions in multi-kingdom biofilm infections in the oral cavity and other ecological niches in the human body. The current work conducted in his research group concerns studying novel antimicrobial interventions for biofilm control and profiling of biofilms using unique technologies.
Christopher Delaney is a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Deputy Coordinator for the Oral Sciences MSc, and Coordinator for the BDS1 undergraduate program. He and his research team investigate microbial biofilms in human disease, with a particular focus on the microbiome and its many interactions. With a background in bioinformatics, Christopher leads a group that employs both traditional and high-throughput methodologies to explore the dynamics of the microbiome and biofilm interactions.
Shauna Culshaw is Professor of Periodontology and Immunology at the University of Glasgow, where she is Dental Clinical Research Facility Lead and Lead for Undergraduate teaching in Periodontics. Shauna completed specialist training in Periodontics and treats patients referred to Glasgow Dental Hospital with advanced periodontal diseases and provides specialist training to staff. Shauna and her research team investigate the immune response in the oral cavity and the relationship between periodontitis and systemic inflammatory diseases.
William McLean is a Professor of Endodontology and Honorary Consultant in Endodontics at the University, he is the academic lead for Undergraduate Endodontics at the Glasgow Dental School, Programme Coordinator for the MSc Endodontics and lead for the Glasgow Endodontology Group. His research group is multidisciplinary working on the immunopathobiology and microbiology of endodontic disease towards the development of novel strategies in its clinical management.
Marcello Riggio is Professor of Comparative Oral Microbiology at the University of Glasgow. His main research is on host-pathogen interactions in oral diseases of animals and studying the role of the microbiome in disease and health, which has involved extensive collaborations with academia and industry in the UK and internationally. He has served at the highest levels on several national and international committees influential in dental research and teaching. These include senior management roles within the British Division (British Society for Oral & Dental Research) of the International Association for Dental Oral & Craniofacial Research (IADR), including as President from 2019-2021.
He is currently a member of both the Board of Directors and Management Committee of the Pan European Region of the International Association for Dental Oral & Craniofacial Research (PER-IADR) and is its Regional Board Member on the Board of Directors of the IADR (2022-2028). He currently represents PER on the BSODR Management Committee. He has been President of the Association of Sciences Educators in Dentistry (ASEiD) since 2021.
Jennifer Malcolm is a lecturer in Biomedical Science. Her lab focuses on host:bacterial interactions in the oral cavity and how these interactions impact our susceptibility to oral and systemic inflammation. One important aim of the research is to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms linking Porphyromonas gingivalis infection with the development of rheumatoid arthritis. Her lab uses cutting edge technologies to characterise our cellular infection models at unprecedented resolution. The aim is to use this new information to manipulate host:bacterial interactions to prevent immune-mediated pathology linked with oral bacterial infection.
Ruchi Kumari is a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on cellular senescence—a critical stress response that restricts replication in old, damaged, and cancerous cells—and its broad pathophysiological implications. She has expertise in identifying and characterizing senescent cells through advanced techniques. Ruchi has had a long-standing interest in understanding the biological relevance of cellular senescence in diverse biological niches and targeting them for better therapeutic interventions and healthy ageing. Currently, her work focuses on two primary areas: identifying and characterizing cellular senescence in dental pulp cells to understand its biological relevance and investigating how senescent states differ upon infection with pathogenic versus non-pathogenic bacterial strains in the oral cavity. This latter work aims to determine whether these differences influence susceptibility to oral diseases. By bridging fundamental cellular senescence research with therapeutic applications, my work contributes to the development of interventions for better therapeutic outcomes and healthy aging.
Andrew Smith is a Professor and Consultant Microbiologist based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He is the Director of the Bacterial Respiratory Infection Service, Scottish Microbiology Reference Laboratory, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and a lead Consultant for Medical Device Decontamination, NHS GG&C. Co-Chair, Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group – Dental sub-group. He is a Specialist Editor for the Journal of Hospital Infection. Research interests include applying bacterial respiratory pathogen genomics (S. pyogenes, S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, N meningitidis & L pneumophila) to patient diagnostics, public health and vaccine surveillance. The Scottish Reference Laboratory undertakes near real-time whole genome sequencing for our pathogen repertoire and we have a number of active National and International collaborations within this field. Clinical and research interests also include antimicrobial stewardship across specialties.
Andrew Hamilton is a senior lecturer in molecular cell biology. His lab studies fundamental mechanisms of cell division and stem cell activity in dental pulp. He is developing novel CRISPR gene editing and synthetic mRNA reprogramming strategies that are specifically adapted for understanding and manipulating adult stem cells such as those from dental pulp. Ultimately, the aim is to be able to engineer dental pulp stem cell activity in vivo to support new clinical interventions in endodontics.
Douglas Roberston is a senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant in restorative dentistry as well as the Co-Chair of the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group – Dental sub-group. His clinical interests include hypodontia, developmental abnormalities of the teeth and endodontics. He is the teaching lead for fixed prosthodontics and implant dentistry and heavily involved in post graduate teaching on the MSc in Endodontics and in quality improvement in health care. His current research interests include a national RCT on vital pulp therapy in the management of irreversible pulpitits, antibiotic stewardship in dentistry, use of routinely captured data in dental health surveillance and the application of navigational and robotic technologies to endodontics and implant dentistry.
Marta Czesnikiewicz-Guzik is a Senior Clinical Lecturer, Academic Mentor, Clinician Scientist, and Clinical Specialist in Periodontology and Oral Surgery. Her cross-institutional research group investigates the systemic implications of periodontal disease, including associations with cardiovascular disease and cancer. She has published over 100 papers in high-impact journals such as the European Heart Journal, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cardiovascular Research, British Journal of Pharmacology, Clinical Immunology, and Journal of Prosthodontics.
Oral Sciences Research Students
Current PhD students:
Abdullah Baz – Using simple and complex wound in vitro biofilm models for testing of novel therapeutics
Muhanna Alshehri – Investigating oral bacterial interactions in modulating Candida albicans pathogenicity
Zainab Bilal - Investigating phenotypic changes in chronic wound biofilms in response to antimicrobial treatment using Raman spectroscopy
Lauren Ashcroft – Beyond the oral microbiome: Developing a bioinformatic toolkit for investigating the oral ecosystem and disease development
Laurence Rowan – Bacteriophage in the Canine Oral Microbiome
Suror Shaban - Investigating the Antimicrobial Potential of a Novel Chitosan Polymer in Endodontics
Krystyna Piela - Holding the front line – maintaining barrier integrity in the mouth
Ross Deehan - Investigating the mechanisms and functional consequences of immune subversion of dendritic cell function by P. gingivalis as a mechanism underlying the immune aetiology of rheumatoid arthritis
Nasser Binsaif – Investigating activation of intracellular immune signalling pathways following exposure of epithelial tissue to oral bacteria
Othman Baradwan – With the help of CRISPR-Cas9 complex to knockout genes to identify the ones involved with in vitro senescence in dental pulp stem cells
