Rena D'Souza (born January 22, 1955) is a clinician-scientist and the 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 ...

. She was formerly the assistant vice president for academic affairs and education for health sciences at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

where she was also a Professor of

Dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...

in the School of Dentistry and a Professor of

Neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

and

Anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

in the School of Medicine.

Early life and education

D'Souza was born and raised in

Mumbai, India Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. She attended the

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate university, collegiate, State university (India), state-owned, Public university, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the un ...

(then the University of Bombay), where she received her Bachelor of Dental Science degree in 1977. She then moved to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where she attended the

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the T ...

. There, she received her

Doctor of Dental Medicine Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

degree in 1985 and her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

degree in 1987.

Career

D'Souza's research interests center of

tissue engineering Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of Cell (biology), cells, engineering, Materials science, materials methods, and suitable biochemistry, biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintai ...

and dental care, working with tooth

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

s to develop a method to re-grow the living tissue and eliminate the need for

root canals In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

. She has worked with colleagues to attempt to regenerate tooth pulp using a gelatin-like

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

hydrogel A hydrogel is a crosslinked hydrophilic polymer that does not dissolve in water. They are highly absorbent yet maintain well defined structures. These properties underpin several applications, especially in the biomedical area. Many hydrogels ar ...

, which serves as a base into which pulp cells, blood vessels, and nerves can grow. Her research group has also worked to understand the underlying genetic basis for

cleft palate A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...

working with mice as a model system, linking the condition to a mutation in the

PAX9 Paired box gene 9, also known as PAX9, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''PAX9'' gene. It is also found in other mammals. Expression and function This gene is a member of the paired box (PAX) family of transcription factors. D ...

gene. They found that they could inject pregnant mice carrying babies with cleft palates with a drug that could restore the palatal shelves of their pups. In June 2020, D'Souza became the inaugural Ole and Marty Jensen Endowed Chair, which was established to enable further innovations in tissue engineering for dental and craniofacial research.

Leadership

From 2012 to 2013, D'Souza served as the American Association for Dental Research's forty-first President and from 2018 to 2019, she served as 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 ...

's ninety-fifth President. On August 1, 2013, she became the first dean of the

's new School of Dentistry. In August 2020, D'Souza was selected as the

's ninth director, replacing

Martha Somerman Martha J. Somerman (*March 13, 1947 in Brooklyn, NY, USA) is an internationally known researcher and educator in Medicine, focusing on defining the key regulators controlling development, maintenance, and regeneration of dental, oral, and cranio ...

, who served from 2011 to 2020. D'Souza's tenure as Director began on October 13, 2020 and Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque became the deputy director later that year.

Awards & honors

* Elected Fellow,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, 2011 *Elected Fellow, American Association for Dental Research, 2016 * Irwin D. Mandel Distinguished Mentoring Award,

, 2017 *In 2012 she became a member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Souza, Rena Indian women scientists University of Mumbai alumni University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston alumni National Institutes of Health people Living people 1955 births University of Utah faculty Women dentists Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 21st-century Indian women scientists