Clinical testing of products in all area's of dentistry. As Director of the Center For Clinical Studies, Dr. Gunsolley has the responsibility to obtain funding from industry and insure that all clinical trials are properly run in the center. In the past two years the center has been involved in six trials that were outside Dr. Gunsolley specialty of Periodontics and he has been principal or co-investigator in four of these trials. Given these three areas of research, Dr. Gunsolley has vast experience in the analysis and conduct of clinical trials. One of the Goals of the Center for Clinical studies has been the mentoring of individuals in the conduct clinical trials.
Patients studied by our group have phagocyte immunodeficiencies.
Investigators in this section develop and test therapies for these patients and define the impact of particular immune defects on overall health. Current research includes defining the genetic basis of these diseases. One of the largest patient cohorts followed longitudinally at this institution have chronic granulomatous disease, in which deficient superoxide production leads to recurrent severe infections and defects in cell-signaling. This population and others could be studied collaboratively in future studies by dental and infectious disease investigators. For example, neutrophils and other phagocytes play a vital role in the maintenance of oral health.