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Oral Biology
Chair Robert Burne takes a
bite out of bad bacteria
By LINDY McCOLLUM-BROUNLEY
Eew! That sticky goo growing on your teeth is plaque. But to
Robert A. Burne, Ph.D., chairman of oral biology at the UF
College of Dentistry, it’s biofilm and it’s beautiful.
A microscopic view of biofilm reveals surrealistic
strands of bacteria draped in graceful loops and serpentines,
forming great, clustered colonies on the porous tooth surface
that can erode tooth enamel and invade gingival tissues and
cells to cause periodontal disease.
The typical human mouth supports a whole host of
bacteria — all living, reproducing and dying by the millions
inside our mouths, for the most part without our knowledge.
Most of these bacterial strains have lived in harmony with our
species for hundreds of thousands of years, coexisting inside
our mouths with a minimum of fuss.
That was until our diets changed, and we began feeding
the bacteria too much sugar.
Now some strains of sugar-pumped bacteria, most
notably Streptococcus mutans, reproduce helter-skelter inside our
mouths, gobbling up the glucose from the foods we chew and
excreting corrosive lactic acid onto our tooth enamel. Before you
know it, you’ve got a full-blown case of dental caries, and the
chemical balance inside
your mouth favors the
reproduction of the bad
bugs over the benign.
Burne, recruited
from the University
of Rochester School of
Medicine and Dentistry in
2001, is working to develop
a genetically engineered
strain of bacteria that will
defeat the bad bugs such
as S. mutans. His research
has shown a certain strain
of common oral bacteria
produces ammonia and
it beats the bad bugs by
changing the pH balance
inside the mouth. There
is evidence that the
Photo - Courtesy UF Oral Biology
10 Gator Dentist Today Fall/Winter 2003
Photo - Lindy Brounley
elevated pH balance may even encourage remineralization of
the tooth enamel. Burne’s idea is to develop a super strain of
this ammonia-producing bacteria that could be introduced into
a person’s mouth very early, providing a lifetime of protection
against tooth decay.
Burne is not alone in the battle against bad bacteria. He
leads a department of talented researchers dedicated to exploring
the molecular biology of oral diseases. The department’s
research focuses on microbiology and immunology, and its
research faculty is, per capita, among the most productive in
the nation in garnering National Institutes of Health research
award funding — increasing from $3 million in NIH funding
in 2000-01 to more than $9 million today, a meteoric increase of
more than 200 percent.
Planning for the Future
To help the college establish a blueprint for
further expansion, Burne penned a winning NIH Research
Infrastructure Planning Grant proposal, funded this fall.
The Research Infrastructure Planning Grant will facilitate a
comprehensive inventory of all research under way in the
college, the amount of square footage devoted to research
activities, research equipment and personnel, as well as
multidisciplinary partnerships and collaborative opportunities
for college researchers within the university and the UF Health
Science Center.
“I think this college is extremely strong in basic science
research, and it has been very successful over the last few years,”
Burne said. “Yet there is a tremendous amount of untapped
potential, especially in periodontal research, pain research and
clinical translational research. The infrastructure planning grant
will enable us to identify our strengths and weaknesses in terms
of potential.”