Non-clinical PhD Studentship in Oral Surgery and Biomaterials

Department of Oral Surgery

King's College London

Background
Toothache is a debilitating and widespread condition, affecting the majority of adults in the western world at some point during a lifetime. It is often an unbearable pain, but a complete understanding of the pathophysiology of dental pain is still lacking. The current hypothesis is that changes in temperature/osmolarity within the mouth cause fluid movement within dentine tubules underlying the enamel, causing pressure changes which are then detected directly by dental nociceptive fibres. Recent studies have implicated the odontoblasts (cells that form dentine and line the tubules) as transducers of pain. At Guy’s we have access to many human teeth, both healthy and inflamed, that are extracted during standard dental procedures.

Aims
The research during this PhD will form part of our ongoing investigations into the genetic, cellular and receptor expression/activity involved in pain and hypersensitivity of the human dental pulp.
It is anticipated that the results from these studies will provide new insights into the mechanisms of dental pain transmission, and potentially identify new targets for pharmacological intervention.

Specific objectives
• To establish human dental pulp cell cultures using teeth extracted from dental patients, and optimise culture procedures to trigger maturation of precursor cells into odontoblasts
• To examine expression of key peripheral pain candidate proteins in teeth by genetic, proteomic and imaging methods (e.g. confocal microscopy)
• To determine how expression of these markers vary with pain states in patients

4. Value & Use of Award:
• Funding covers stipend for 3 years, tuition fees, bench fees
• Funding commences on or after 1st September 2008
• May be held in conjunction with other awards

5. Eligibility
In order to be considered, applicants must meet the following criteria:
• Have achieved, or be expected to achieve a 2.1 or 1 grade at B.Sc.
• Be a citizen of the U.K or E.U
• Some experience of laboratory-based cell culture work and molecular biology techniques would be desirable, but not essential.