# Association between Oral Candida albicans and the Onset of Severe Early Childhood Caries

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2022 · $149,501

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This K23 career development award will establish the critical launching step of Dr. Xiao's career as a clinician-
scientist focusing on early childhood caries and severe early childhood caries (ECC/S-ECC) research. The
grant will support her development of key expertise in 4 areas: 1) Refine skills in epidemiological research in
cariology, including caries risk assessment and diagnostic systems; 2) Enhance skills in cutting-edge applied
microbiology for translational dental research; 3) Design and conduct clinical studies and clinical trials; and 4)
Improve skills in scientific communications. To achieve these goals, Dr. Xiao has assembled a multidisciplinary
mentoring team with expertise in dental translational/clinical research (primary mentor, Dr. Kopycka),
microbiology-biofilm/cariology (co-primary mentor, Dr. Koo), caries epidemiology (secondary mentor, Dr.
Billings), epidemiology (secondary mentor, Dr. van Wijngaarden), and biostatistics (secondary mentor, Dr.
Feng). Dr. Xiao is also strongly supported by an advisory committee with Dr. Mendoza (family medicine), Dr.
Quivey (oral microbiology), Dr. Gill (oral genomics), Dr. Rustchenko (Candida albicans chromosome research)
and Dr. Baldwin (scientific writing). ECC is the most common chronic disease of childhood and
disproportionately afflicts socioeconomically disadvantaged children worldwide. Emerging evidence on the role
of Candida species in ECC/S-ECC has spotlighted potential approaches to early prediction and subsequent
prevention of this disease from a fungal perspective. However, only cross-sectional human studies have been
performed thus far. Without prospective cohort studies through the age of S-ECC onset and further clarification
of microbiological contributions, it remains unclear how Candida detection is linked with the disease process
and whether this fungal organism could be a reliable marker for risk of onset and progression of S-ECC. The
immediate goal of this K23 proposal is to build upon and expand the cohort/framework used in Dr. Xiao's KL2
by conducting a 2-year prospective cohort study to investigate the association between oral C. albicans
carriage and the onset of S-ECC, and to explore the underlying microbiological mechanisms. The overarching
hypotheses are that oral C. albicans could be used as novel biological marker for S-ECC in combination with
the current bacterial risk factors, and that the presence of Candida enhances S. mutans colonization and
disrupts the oral microbiota in early infancy. To test these hypotheses, Dr. Xiao will study the association
between C. albicans oral colonization in infants at high risk for S-ECC and the onset/severity of S-ECC (AIM
1); Analyze the association between oral carriage of C. albicans and S. mutans in infants (birth to 2 years)
(AIM 2); Evaluate the influence of oral C. albicans on oral microbiota in early infancy (AIM 3). In summary, this
K23 award will provide Dr. Xiao with training, experience a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10451728
- **Project number:** 5K23DE027412-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Jin Xiao
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $149,501
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10451728

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10451728, Association between Oral Candida albicans and the Onset of Severe Early Childhood Caries (5K23DE027412-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10451728. Licensed CC0.

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