Naile Dame-Teixeira received her PhD in Cariology from the University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) in 2015. She is a senior lecturer and heads the Laboratory of Biomaterials and Oral Microbiology at the Department of Dentistry (University of Brasilia, Brazil). Dr Dame-Teixeira is an active member of the IADR, contributing as the secretary/treasurer of the IADR Cariology Research group. Her career achievements include successful grant applications in both Brazil and the UK, the publication of over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and the supervision of more than 30 students at various academic levels, including scientific initiation, Master's, and PhD programs. Her research interests comprise the oral microbiome and root caries. The experience in using Next-Generation Sequencing techniques led to attention in identifying microorganisms in low abundance, being the pioneer in detecting the ones belonging to the Archaea domain in caries-associated biofilms. Clinical studies, observational studies, and systematic reviews are used to characterize clinical features (systemic diseases, salivary components, and hyposalivation) that can be involved in the development of caries. Dongmei Deng received her degree in Dentistry from the Sun Yat-sen University (China) and her Ph.D. in Dentistry in 2004 at Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Preventive Dentistry, ACTA. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers and published abstracts. Dr. Deng has served on more than 10 graduate committees in the Netherlands and other countries and supervised multiple undergraduate, graduate students. Her research interests encompass oral molecular microbiology, oral immunology, biofilm modulation, dental caries prevention and host-microbe interactions. Her work spans a variety of research projects focused on biofilm characterization, modelling and modulation, as well as microbe-induced antibiotic resistance and chemoresistance. Thuy Do received her degree in Biochemistry from the University of Strasbourg, France. She also holds a BSc in Food Science & Nutrition, and an MSc in Analytical Chemistry. She obtained a PhD in Microbiology from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She is currently Professor in Microbiology at the University of Leeds, School of Dentistry. She teaches microbiology to Dental Surgery students and supervises Undergraduate and Postgraduate students. She is engaged in numerous academic and industrial research projects which form part of national and international collaborations. She has authored more than 70 peered-reviewed scientific papers. Her research interests include the investigation of the phylogenetic diversity of the oral microbiota and its association with systemic diseases, as well as the functional biology governing complex interactions within oral biofilms through the use of metagenomics and meta-transcriptomics.
