BME Seminar: Santiago Orrego
Monday, April 17th, 2023 - 12:00 p.m.
Santiago Orrego, PhD
Assistant Professor at Temple University
Oral Health Sciences and Bioengineering
"Smart Dental Biomaterials: From Antibacterial Therapies to Tissue Regeneration"
Keating 103
Live Zoom Link; Passcode: BearDown
(Instructor permission required for enrolled students to attend via Zoom)
Hosts: Dr. Beth Hutchinson and Dr. Shang Song
Persons with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Disability Resource Center at 621-3268 (V/TTY).
ABSTRACT: Smart biomaterials (i.e., targeted, stimuli-, bio-responsive, autonomous) are those that change one or more of their properties in response to a stimulus. These biomaterial systems offer improved efficacy while decreasing toxicity and other adverse effects like drug resistance. The successful development of these technologies could lead to the improvement of overall health and the reduction of medical costs associated with diseases. In this talk, Dr. Orrego will present his recent advances in the development of different smart dental biomaterials with intriguing multi-functionalities. Specifically, he will describe his novel dental composite with dual functionalities including antibacterial and regeneration. Furthermore, Dr. Orrego will present his biomaterial that mimics bone in the ability to self-stiffen in response to external loading.
BIO: Dr. Santiago Orrego, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences and Bioengineering Department at Temple University. He directs the Smart Biomaterials Research Laboratory. Dr. Orrego has a doctorate degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in biomaterials and conducted postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University studying smart biomaterials. Dr. Orrego has led the transformation of the dental materials research conducted at the Kornberg School of Dentistry. His interdisciplinary research combines approaches from advanced materials, engineering, and micro/molecular biology toward the development of smart biomaterials to improve oral health. His work encompasses various aspects of antibacterial, remineralization and regeneration technologies, in addition to developing novel strategies for the assessment of the bond strength of restorations.
In this talk, Dr. Orrego will present his recent developments in smart biomaterials for oral health. Specifically, he will describe how our unique biomaterial offers combined antimicrobial and tissue regeneration effects, and how these technologies are being translated for treating periodontal disease, denture stomatitis, and caries.