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Dr. Yung-Hua Li Receives New Investigator Award

Dr. Yung-Hua Li, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Oral Sciences, is a recipient of a New Investigator Award available through the Nova Scotia / CIHR Regional Partnership Program (RPP). This is a new award funded by the RPP and has a value of $300,000 over five years, with 50% of the funds coming from CIHR and matching funds from the Faculty of Dentistry. Dr. Li’s CIHR and NSERC-funded research focuses on the molecular dissection of microbial biofilms and associated infections, work that is especially timely given the increasing prevalence and subsequent burden of these infections in the clinical setting. A biofilm is an arrangement of bacterial or fungal molecules in dense layers on hard surfaces that make microbes particularly resistant to antibiotics and the body’s natural defenses. These biofilms can form on any exposed hard surface such as teeth, and can also infect medical devices such as dental implants and catheters. Dr. Li is presently working with the dental plaque causing bacteria, Streptococcus mutans, responsible for biofilm formation on teeth. He has been able to synthesize an analogous molecule that makes these bacteria more sensitive to the detergent found in toothpaste, inhibiting their ability to form biofilms. Through the use of these analogues, he hopes to develop a drug that will have wide-ranging medical and dental applications in the fight against biofilm-based infections.