Master of Science [M.S] [Oral and Craniofacial Biomedicine] From University of North Carolina

The discipline of oral and craniofacial biomedicine applies and extends the concepts of immunology, embryology, physiology, cellular and molecular biology, neurobiology, pharmacology, microbiology, and biochemistry to understanding the growth and development and pathologies associated with the craniofacial complex and oral cavity. Expertise and authority in the particular concepts of host-pathogen interactions, neurobiology, skeletal biology and extracellular matrices, and cancer are well represented within the program and training qualifications of program faculty located in numerous UNC?Chapel Hill programs and departments, including the School of Dentistry, School of Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Neurosciences Center, the Center for Cystic Fibrosis, and the Center for AIDS Research.Attention in dental research and practice is now focusing on the dynamics of oral disease and prevention and treatment at the earliest stages of development, including research on risk factors for disease as well as the cellular and molecular events in disease pathogenesis. Molecular approaches for oral disease analysis and the complexity of disease elements require advanced training in the discipline of oral and craniofacial biomedicine. Modern biomedical research is also identifying systemic relationships between oral conditions, health status, and diseases such as atherosclerosis, HIV, and cancer. The oral cavity also offers an ideal model to study biological structures and cellular mechanisms important throughout the body and important in immune response.