A little about the Den Besten Lab
Dr. Den Besten serves as Director for the Center for Children’s Oral Health Research, a cross campus translational research initiative. Much of her research focuses on understanding how ameloblasts, the cells that form tooth enamel, direct enamel mineralization. Through this work, she aims to understand how the enviroment, including fluoride exposure and early life adversity can alter tooth formation.
In recent clinical studies, her group found dental caries to be a risk factor for blood stream infection in children undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant. These findings are serving as a guide to identify new strategies to reduce the cariogenic oral microbiome of children pre and post transplant.