Agnes Bloch-Zupan

Fellowship 2015

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Agnès Bloch-Zupan is Professor of Oral Biology in the Faculty of Dentistry (University of Strasbourg, France), Her teaching activities focus on craniofacial and dental development and anomalies encountered in rare diseases. She exerces her clinical and hospital duties curing patients at the Reference centre for orodental manifestations of rare diseases, Pôle de Médecine et Chirurgie Bucco-Dentaires, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg. Dr. Bloch-Zupan carries her preclinical research at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (CERBM, INSERM U964, CNRS 7104 d’lllkirch, France) studying the physiopathology of developmental anomalies and reproductiong animal models of those diseases. She holds an Honorary Professor position of University College London, Eastman Dental Institute. In 2015, she received the Sciences Price from the Rhenane Academy.

She created, developed and is using original research tools such as a transcriptomic atlas, standard operating procedures for mouse oral cavity phenotyping, next generation sequencing, attempting to improve knowledge and understanding of etiopathology responsible for these orodental anomalies.

A clinically-based model for improving alveolar bone growth and osseointegration

Patients carrying null mutations of a matricellular protein-coding gene SMOC2 (SPARC-related modular calcium-binding protein) exhibit pronounced alveolar (jaw) bone growth deficiency and oligodontia (missing and abnormally shaped teeth). The functional properties of SMOC2 suggest it acts as a secreted signal inducing tooth and alveolar bone development. SMOC2 is expressed in various stem cell populations. To determine SMOC2 action, Smoc2-null mutants, oral epithelium and neural crest-specific mutants, and an EGFP-ires-CreER^T2 lineage reporter will be used to investigate craniofacial phenotypes, determine the origins and mechanism of resulting defects, and perform lineage tracing of Smoc2-labeled populations of dental stem cells. In a therapeutically directed approach we will test if adenoviral overexpression of human SMOC2 improves bone growth in wild-type and mutant mice. Finally using a pre-clinical model for dental implants, Smoc2-/- mice will be tested for osseointegration defects and ability of SMOC2 treatment to increase dental implant success rate.