Charles Shuler

D.M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director of Center of Craniofacial Molecular Biology 
George and Mary Lou Boone Professor of Craniofacial Molecular Biology

School of Dentistry
Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology

The primary objective of the projects Dr. Shuler’s research group is to examine the molecular mechanisms that underlie processes of epithelial differentiation. One example concerns the medial edge epithelia (MEE) that covers the regions of the palatal shelves that must adhere to form the secondary palate. The MEE represents a barrier to the mesenchymal confluence. It had been hypothesized that the MEE underwent a process of programmed cell death. Recent studies in his laboratory have challenged this long standing hypothesis and provided evidence that the MEE do not die but rather transdifferentiate from an epithelial phenotype to a mesenchymal phenotype. Dr. Shuler also studies oral cancer heterogeneity. A model human carcinoma cell system that he has developed permits both carcinogen-initiated normal human keratinocytes and tumor-derived cell populations at different stages of malignant progression to be examined. Drs. Shuler and Warburton collaborate on MEE defects in a TGF beta 3 knock-out mouse model. Drs. Crowe and Shuler collaborate on gene expression studies of oral neoplasia. Drs. Kedes and Shuler collaborate on craniofacial targets for gene therapy.

 

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