June 03, 2016

NIH chose to feature one of our images in their gallery showcasing NIH funded research. Our image was chosen from a pool of many as one of the best.

July 01, 2016

Dr. Yilmaz recently edited a special issue of Microbes and Infection in July of 2016. This issue focused on the oral microbiota and explored known as well as potential pathogens that play roles in periodontal diesease.

July 13, 2011

In the April issue of the journal PLoS ONE, a team of NIDCR-supported scientists reports that it has the solution.  They demonstrated for the first time in P. gingivalis that a strictly anaerobic micro-organism can be genetically engineered to express a green fluorescent protein probe.  In this case, the probe is an adaptation of the recently discovered oxygen-independent flavin mononucleotide (FMN) fluorescent proteins.  Their natural fluorescence derives not from jellyfish, the original source of GFP, but from blue light-sensing proteins of the bacteriaBacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas putida.

February 01, 2006

Press release from Nature regarding our recent publication 

September 10, 2009

In the mid 1990s, scientists discovered the oral pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis can invade and survive within the outer, or epithelial, cells of the gingiva.  Subsequent work established this oral bacterium also can replicate within these cells and infect nearby gingival epithelial cells, suggesting a possible route of infection in causing periodontal disease.  In the January issue of the journal Infection and Immunity, NIDCR grantees report how P. gingivalis might spread from one cell to the next.  Rather than releasing into the extracellular space as might be expected, the bacterium “translocates,” directly into neighboring cells.  They found it may do so via a protrusion of the cell membrane that appears to be composed of the filament-like actin protein.  In this way, P. gingivalis can colonize oral issues without exposing itself to antibody-producing immune cells.