Jennifer Y. Webster-Cyriaque is an American dentist and immunologist specializing in the oral microbiome,

salivary gland disease Salivary gland diseases (SGDs) are multiple and varied in cause. There are three paired major salivary glands in humans – the parotid glands, the submandibular glands, and the sublingual glands. In addition there are about 800-1000 minor saliv ...

in patients with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

, and cancer-causing viruses. She became the deputy director of the

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) is a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The institute aims to improve the oral, dental, and craniofacial health through research and the distribution of important he ...

in November 2020. Webster-Cyriaque was a faculty member at

UNC Adams School of Dentistry The UNC Claude A. Adams Jr. and Grace Phillips Adams School of Dentistry is the dental school, school of dentistry of the University of North Carolina. It is located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is currently ranked second among ...

and the

UNC School of Medicine The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of M ...

for 21 years.

Education

Webster-Cyriaque completed a B.A. in biology and social science in 1988 and a D.D.S. from

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

in 1992. She earned a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

(UNC) in 1998. Her dissertation was titled ''The role of

Epstein–Barr virus The Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), formally called ''Human gammaherpesvirus 4'', is one of the nine known human herpesvirus types in the herpes family, and is one of the most common viruses in humans. EBV is a double-stranded DNA virus. It is b ...

hairy leukoplakia Hairy leukoplakia is a white patch on the side of the tongue with a corrugated or hairy appearance. It is caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and occurs usually in persons who are immunocompromised, especially those with human immunodeficiency v ...

and other AIDS associated oral mucosal lesions''. was her doctoral advisor.

Career

Webster-Cyriaque has been part of the

's and the

's faculty for over twenty years. Webster-Cyriaque is one of the UNC's tenured full professors. She supported the UNC Hospital’s dental clinic and she investigated a potential cause for a

patients. She assessed the

oral microbiome The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside, including the skin, mammary glands, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian ...

's implications for

Oncovirus An oncovirus or oncogenic virus is a virus that can cause cancer. This term originated from studies of acutely transforming retroviruses in the 1950–60s, when the term "oncornaviruses" was used to denote their RNA virus origin. With the lette ...

es, and its impact on the HIV patient's oral health.

In 2004, she became responsible for the "UNC Malawi project". The project is a partnership between the Malawi Ministry of Health (led by Khumbize Chiponda since 2020) and the UNC. The UNC Malawi Project is based in the country's capital at the

Kamuzu Central Hospital Kamuzu Central Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital in the city of Lilongwe, (capital of Malawi). It is estimated to have 780 beds, although the true number of patients always exceeds the number of beds. It serves approximately 5 million pe ...

. Webster-Cyriaque assisted in creating Malawi’s first dental school in 2019. Webster-Cyriaque was the chair/vice chair of the Oral HIV/AIDS Research Alliance, the research director at the

National Dental Association The National Dental Association (NDA) is a professional association of minority dentists based in Washington, D.C., and operating in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Formed in 1913, it is the largest such association in the world. Amo ...

Foundation, and director of postdoctoral

Clinical and Translational Science Award Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is a type of U.S. federal grant administered by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA program began in October 2006 under the au ...

training. She is an active member of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the

International Association for Dental Research The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a professional association, founded in 1920 by William Gies, that focuses on research in the field of dentistry. The aim of this association by constitution is to promote research in all f ...

. In March 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Webster-Cyriaque was involved with research at the Adams School of Dentistry at the UNC to see if mouthwash could be used to inactivate the

Covid-19 virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a p ...

. Later that year she became the

's deputy director under the new Director Rena D’Souza. In 2022, Webster-Cyriaque received the International Association for Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Oral Pathology and Medicine Research Award. The same year, she was named to the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

for For making seminal contributions to the understanding of the role of virus-host interaction in oral disease.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster-Cyriaque, Jennifer Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) African-American dentists American dentistry academics University at Buffalo alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of North Carolina School of Medicine faculty 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century African-American scientists Women dentists National Institutes of Health people 21st-century African-American women HIV/AIDS researchers African-American women scientists American immunologists Women immunologists Members of the National Academy of Medicine 21st-century American dentists