Surveillance and Characterization of Oral Health in Opioid Use Disorder (SCOPE)

By the Numbers

Meet the Team

Marcia Rojas Ramirez, College of Dentistry, UK - Dr. Rojas-Ramirez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry with a background in Public Health. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain and brings over 10 years of experience in chronic pain management.  
 
Dr. Rojas-Ramirez will collaborate closely with Dr. Oyler to ensure the successful implementation of the study. She will oversee all phases of the study, ensuring seamless coordination and alignment of the multiple processes involved.  

Douglas Oyler, College of Pharmacy, UK - Douglas Oyler, PharmD is an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Kentucky’s College of Pharmacy. His research focuses on safe opioid prescribing and other strategies to mitigate harm from the opioid crisis in Kentucky and beyond. He has served as principal or co-investigator on numerous projects funded by NIH, FDA, DOJ, DOD, and others.

Dr. Oyler is one of the principal investigators and, along with Dr. Rojas-Ramirez, will oversee all aspects of the study and lead the safety oversight and quality control and assessment of the project.  

Blake Fagan, School of Medicine, UNC; MAHEC - Blake Fagan, MD is the Clinical Director of Substance Use Disorders at the Mountain Area Healthcare Education Center (MAHEC) in Asheville, NC, and a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UNC Chapel Hill. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Preventative Medicine, Board-Certified in Addiction Medicine. As the MAHEC site principal investigator, Dr. Fagan will provide leadership and oversight, and serve as primary clinical contact. He will engage with project staff at the University of Kentucky and direct the day-to-day operations of the MAHEC study site including providing project oversight for the MAHEC study team.

Ian Boggero, College of Dentistry, UK - Ian Boggero, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Oral Health Science in the College of Dentistry. He is also the Director of Psychological Services and Research at the UK Orofacial Pain Clinic and has joint appointments in the College of Medicine (Department of Anesthesia) and the College of Arts and Science (Department of Psychology.

Dr. Boggero will contribute to the study design, assessment of behavioral factors, and aid in evaluation and dissemination of findings. He will also be responsible for linking interested study participants to mental health counselling.

Ali Bunch, MAHEC - Ali is a public health dental hygienist at the Mountain Area Health Educational Center (MAHEC) in Asheville, NC. Ali works clinically at MAHEC Dental Clinic, with a School Based Oral Health Initiative and as an adjunct faculty member of the Adams School of Dentistry of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ali graduated from Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College with an Associate in Applied Science in Dental Hygiene in 2014 and from East Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene in 2022.   

Dawn Dawson, College of Dentistry, UK - Dawn Dawson, RDH, CCRC has been employed full time in the Center for Oral Health Research at the University of Kentucky since 2001.  After working on both NIH and Industry sponsored studies at UK, she received her Certified Clinical Research Coordinator Certificate from the Association of Clinical Research Professionals in 2005.

Dawn will work closely with the study team to recruit participants and promote the study at OUD clinics. Dawn will also be in charge of obtaining informed consent, collecting data, and gathering all the clinical and radiographic findings, as well as collecting all the survey information.

Jennifer Dolly Prothro, College of Dentistry, UK  -  Jennifer Dolly Prothro, MPH, CCRP is the Research Project Manager for this study and has been employed full-time in research administration at the University of Kentucky since 2012.  She received her MPH from the UK College of Public Health, with a focus on Health, Behavior & Society.  Her research interests include clinical research in substance use disorders, behavioral methodology, and implementation science.  
 
Jennifer will work closely with the project team to oversee research coordination, regulatory oversight, and network operations. 

Tess Friesen, MAHEC - Tess Friesen, MPH, is a project manager at MAHEC who focuses on grant work in substance use disorder treatment and public health initiatives. These initiatives include training, education, research, and clinical programming.

Tess will manage the daily operations of the project at MAHEC including project implementation, budget tracking, and reporting. Tess will assist with enrolling patients into the study, provide required documentation, and specimen samples.

Octavio Gonzalez, College of Dentistry, UK - Octavio Gonzalez, DDS, PhD is a Professor in the College of Dentistry. He has over 20 years of experience working in the pathogenesis of periodontitis particularly focused in oral microbiome changes and oral host responses associated with this oral disease. His work has been continuously funded by NIH/NIDCR. He is a permanent member of NIH/ODCS study section and serves as editorial board member of the Journal of Periodontology and Journal of Dental Research among others. 

Dr. Gonzalez will support the design and data interpretation of the immunoinflammatory responses and oral microbiome changes. He will also contribute to the dissemination of findings from this proposal.

Malini Kirakodu, College of Dentistry, UK - Malini Kirakodu, BSc, HDSE works as a Data Management Specialist with extensive experience extracting data from electronic health records and development of surveys and questionnaires using REDCap.

Malini will be responsible for REDCap survey and quality management forms development, IT consultation, sample labeling design and printing, and sample tracking. 

Sree Kirakodu, College of Dentistry, UK - Sree Kirakodu, PhD (Research Scientist III) is the Center for Oral Health Research (COHR) main lab manager.

Dr. Kirakodu will be responsible for all aspects of the oral microbiome and inflammatory analysis including samples barcoding processes, checking samples in and checking samples out for other sites, and database entry of all samples and organization into the freezers in the lab. He also will conduct the DNA isolation, primers designs, and interfacing with the UK Genomics Core for the next generation sequencing and data gathering. He will be overseeing and helping the other laboratory technician and the postdoctoral scholar in the lab for all analysis conducted at University of Kentucky, including preparing samples for further analysis.

Michelle Lofwall, College of Medicine, UK - Michelle Lofwall, MD, DFASAM is a Professor, board-certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Lofwall is the Bell Alcohol and Addictions Chair and medical director of two outpatient addiction treatment clinics in the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research.  She enjoys conducting clinical research, teaching, and mentoring all aimed at improving the treatment of persons with substance use disorders. Dr. Lofwall is well-aware of comorbid dental disease seen among patients receiving buprenorphine and is looking forward to this new study that will better establish the role of sublingual buprenorphine in the development of dental problems.

Dr. Lofwall’s clinical and research expertise in psychiatry and addiction medicine make her well-suited to be a co-investigator and serve as an expert in the field of opioid use disorder. Dr. Lofwall will help with recruitment, substance use measure assessment, and interpretation of study outcomes and manuscript writing.  

Brennan Lundie, College of Dentistry, UK - Brennan Lundie, BA, is a research coordinator of five years. He obtained his degree in psychology from Transylvania University and since has been integrally involved with the inception of two clinical research sites local to the area. Additionally, he was part of team at UK that enrolled the highest number of participants globally for J&J’s initial Covid-19 vaccine trial during the pandemic in 2020. His areas of academic interest and research include behavioral pharmacology, abnormal psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.  

Brennan will work closely with the study and project teams to recruit participants, collect survey information, report study metrics, and maintain regulatory compliance. 

Craig S. Miller, College of Dentistry, UK - Craig S. Miller, DMD, MS, is the Alvin L. Morris Professor of Oral Health Research and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Development at the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry. He is board certified in Oral Medicine, with 35 years of experience in the diagnosis and management of complex oral health issues and medically compromised patients. Dr. Miller has authored more than 200 publications, co-authored four internationally recognized textbooks, and has maintained funding from the National Institutes of Health for more than 30 years.

Dr. Miller will facilitate study design and standardization, assist in ensuring protocol adherence, and aid in evaluation and dissemination of the findings.

Daniela Claudia Moga, College of Pharmacy, UK - Daniela Claudia Moga, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Research at the College of Pharmacy with a secondary appointment in the College of Public Health.

Dr. Moga will serve as an expert in the field of study design, with specific focus on establishing the cohort. She will also contribute to the interpretation and dissemination of the findings.  

Galal Omami, College of Dentistry, UK - Galal Omami, BDS, MSc, MDentSc, FRCD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral Health Practice at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Omami is a recognized dental radiologist and will be contributing to this project by reviewing and analyzing all the radiographic images obtained from the participants. He will also participate in the interpretation of radiographic findings and dissemination of this study.

Luciana Shaddox, College of Dentistry, UK - Luciana Shaddox, DDS, PhD is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry, Division of Periodontology. Dr. Shaddox directs all research activities at the college of Dentistry, the Kentucky Oral health Innovation Initiative, actively participates in Periodontology and other courses at UK and several local and national/international committees and has a clinical translational research program supported by NIH since 2009, with a main focus in immunological, microbiological and genetic factors involved with localized aggressive periodontal disease (Grade C Molar incisor pattern) in children and adolescents. She has over 80 publications, has been a member of NIH study sections, she is an editorial board member for the Journal of Clinical of Periodontology, associate editor for the Journal of Periodontology and is the recipient of several research student-mentored awards and personal awards, including the prestigious American Academy of Periodontology Teaching Award and the University of Florida and University of Kentucky Professorship Awards.

Dr. Shaddox will work with MPIs in the study design, will serve as expert in the dental clinical research and the development of standard operating procedures as they pertain to inflammatory biomarkers. She will also contribute to the interpretation of the results and dissemination of the findings of this study.

References