Brushing Up on Tooth Biology: New Tools for Understanding Tooth Development

While teeth have evolved over millions of years, scientists are still working to understand how teeth develop, a process formally known as Odontogenesis. Our guests today have developed a new model of mouse tooth development using long-term expandable 3D tooth organoids from postnatal mouse molars and incisors. This novel mouse model provides a valuable tool to study mouse tooth dental epithelial stem cells, dental epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, and differentiation processes, while allowing further elucidation of tooth type-specific features. These models, in combination with human tooth organoids, have great potential to further unravel tooth biology and repair and may be an alluring tool to eventually enable tooth bioengineering strategies.Annelies Bronckaers is an Associate Professor at Hasselt University in Belgium. Her laboratory specializes in cellular, embryonic, and mouse models to study angiogenesis and tissue regeneration, stem cell differentiation, signal pathway analysis, and ischemic stroke.Florian Hermans is a postdoctoral fellow at the Universiteit Hasselt in the laboratory of [INSERT]. He recently obtained his PhD in biomedical sciences through joint program between the Hasselt University and the University of Leuven where he worked with in the Bronckaers and Vankelecom laboratories. Prior to his PhD, Dr. Hermans earned master’s degrees in intellectual property, ICT law, and biomedical sciences.Hugo Vankelecom runs the Laboratory of Tissue Plasticity in Health and Disease and is a full Professor at the University of Leuven. His laboratory is focused primarily on organs involved in endocrinology and reproduction, in particular the pituitary gland, master regulator of our hormonal system, and the uterus. HostMartin Pera, Editor-in-Chief, Stem Cell Reports and The Jackson LaboratoryTwitter: @martinperaJAXSupporting ContentOrganoids from mouse molar and incisor as new tools to study tooth-specific biology and developmentAbout Stem Cell ReportsStem Cell Reports is the Open Access journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for communicating basic discoveries in stem cell research, in addition to translational and clinical studies. Stem Cell Reports focuses on original research with conceptual or practical advances that are of broad interest to stem cell biologists and clinicians.Twitter: @StemCellReportsAbout ISSCRWith more than 4,600 members from 75+ countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (@ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health.ISSCR StaffKeith Alm, Chief Executive OfficerYvonne Fisher, Managing Editor, Stem Cell ReportsKym Kilbourne, Director of Media and Strategic CommunicationsJack Mosher, Scientific AdvisorVoice WorkBen Snitkoff