Dr. Özlem Yilmaz Research Lab
At Medical University of South Carolina
Ralee Spooner, DMD MSD
Ralee Spooner was born and raised in Central Florida. He attended the University of Florida for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, prior to becoming a student at UF’s College of Dentistry class of 2015.
As an undergraduate, he began his journey in dental research working in Dr. Özlem Yilmaz’s laboratory for the Department of Periodontology. Initially, he provided support to other laboratory members. Once Ralee began his graduate studies, he was able to start designing and conducting his own experiments. The focus of his graduate studies project was the interaction between human gingival epithelial cells and the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. As a result of his efforts, he was able to author and contribute to publications and present research at the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) and American Association of Dental Research (AADR) meetings and traveled to Barcelona, Spain, in 2010.
The summer prior to entering dental school, Ralee was a participant in the Summer Research Program; his project: “Antioxidant response of gingival epithelial cells to Porphyromonas infection.” Ralee was fortunate to present the findings of this project at the 2012 AADR meeting in Tampa, Florida, and at the UF College of Dentistry’s Spring Synergy Research Day, taking 1st place in the D.M.D. poster category.
During his time at UFCD, he has remained actively involved in Dr. Yilmaz’s periodontal research laboratory. Ralee presented his work at the 2013 IADR meeting in Seattle, Washington, and the 2015 IADR meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. He presented “Assessment of metabolically active periodontal pathogens in patients with chronic periodontitis” in the summer of 2015 and received the AADR Bloc Tavel Award. Dr. Spooner, as a graduating DMD student with his research contributions in Dr. Yilmaz's lab, also received the prestigious DMD student, Oral Biologist Award, as well as the DMD student, Pierre Fauchard Academy Award.
Ralee was a member of the AADR National Student Research Group, Academy of General Dentistry, and served as the Class of 2015 Student Affairs Committee representative. In 2014, he was awarded the Excellence in Clinical Periodontology Award and Retired Uniformed Services Scholarship and founding President of the Military Dental Club. As a United States Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program participant, he entered active-duty service in the Navy upon graduation in May 2014. He finished his periodontics residency program in MUSC and completed his Masters of Science in Dentistry in Dr. Yilmaz lab in 2019. In 2013 he married Whitney; they have two dogs (Lexi and Lily) and three cats (Leo, Lucy, and Oliver).