Division of Foundational Sciences

Division Chief

  • John T. Grbic, DMD

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    • Director, Division of Foundational Sciences, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

The primary mission of the Division of Foundational Sciences is to provide an education in the biomedical sciences to students at the College of Dental Medicine. This knowledge of biomedical sciences serves as the foundation of clinical dental practice in the future.

Education

The Division of Foundational Sciences serves as the liaison between the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the College of Dental Medicine for biomedical science courses primarily taught by the medical school faculty and taken by predoctoral College of Dental Medicine students in their first and second years. These courses include Clinical Anatomy, Molecular Mechanisms in Health and in Disease, The Body in Health and in Disease I & II, and Psychiatric Medicine. The division works to translate the biomedical knowledge taught in these courses to the clinical practice of dentistry.

The Division of Foundational Sciences is also involved in the education of postdoctoral students at the College of Dental Medicine. The Division’s faculty are the course directors of several “core” courses in the postdoctoral curriculum, including the Oral Biology and Functional Anatomy courses, and they offer lectures in a number of other posdoctoral courses.

Research

The Division of Foundational Sciences participates in a broad range of research activities that pertain to the translation of biomedical sciences to oral sciences. Members of the faculty of the Division of Foundational Sciences have been involved in both NIH- and industry-sponsored projects. Research interests of division faculty include oral diagnostics (gingival crevicular fluid and saliva), clinical trial design, and the pharmacotherapeutic management of periodontal and other oral diseases as well as the relationship of oral diseases to systemic diseases including HIV infection and diabetes. Members of the division have also been involved in studying the effects of medications on bone metabolism and the epidemiology of the disease entity “osteonecrosis of the jaw”.

Faculty