Cell Biology: One-way Calcium Channel Pinpointed Within the Cell Neuroscience: Knocking Down Cell Cycle Protein Picks Up Axon Growth Microbiology: Early Step in Protein-folding Revealed by Bacterial Mutant Milestone Symposium 5 Hope, Caution Expressed About Stem Cells Milestone Symposium 4 Speakers Unmask Molecular Players in the Brain Dental Practice: Dentistry's Future Glimpsed at Leadership Forum Green Campus Initiative: Harvard's Longwood Schools Grow Greener Outreach: Medical Team Aids Earthquake Relief in Iran Second-year Show: Students Rollick Along the Low Road in Second-year Show New Books: The Winter Bookshelf   Protein-Protein Interactions Mapped for C. elegans Reading Expressions: A Skill Toward Becoming A Better Doctor? High Intake of Vitamin D Supplement May Cut Risk of Multiple Sclerosis Nuclear-export Inhibitors Found In Cell-based Screen   Appointments to Full Professor HSPH Awarded $20.5m Biodefense Grant Nominations Sought for Dean's Awards to Advance Women FDA Commissioner Speaks at Next Milestone Symposium HSPH Calls for Myrto Lefkopoulou Lecture Award Nominees News Brief Honors and Advances In Memoriam: David Bray James Roberts David Freiman William Montgomery   A Joke as Cover for Sexism and Violence   Medicare Drug Benefit May Unsettle Some Stomachs   Front Page

DENTAL PRACTICE Dentistry's Future Glimpsed at Leadership Forum Bjorn Olsen presented a vision of dentistry's future to an audience of dentists and business leaders during the 2003 Leadership Forum, hosted by HSDM. The presentations, on Dec. 10 and 11, focused on creating and sustaining successful growth in the dental industry. Topics ranged from business innovation to new developments in dental medicine. Olsen's lecture outlined one of dentistry's new directions--using the body's own systems to improve practice. Currently, most dental therapy is surgically based--for example, repositioning teeth with mechanical devices. Olsen, the head of the Department of Oral and Developmental Biology at HSDM and the Hersey professor of cell biology at HMS, said that these methods ignore how the body remodels tissues and generates teeth during normal development. Olsen's research with mouse jaws examines the mechanisms by which pressure on a tooth stimulates cytokines that in turn induce differentiation of bone-resorbing osteoclasts and stimulate bone-forming osteoblasts, which support repositioning. He said that if the proper cytokines could be directly applied to the area surrounding a tooth, "the tooth could be moved through the jaw like a hot knife through butter." Taking advantage of such biological mechanisms could potentially eliminate the need for the type of braces that are currently in use. Instead of wires and brackets, Olsen envisions using a series of plastic retainers with strategically placed cytokine/drug-releasing threads that stimulate bone remodeling and tooth movement. Olsen urged his audience to keep abreast of developments in dentistry and to consider investing in the companies and labs that are working on these new technologies. --Nicole Giese