University of Southern California
Schematic representation summarizing Ambn-cell membrane interactions and the expression of polarization markers in AmbnWT/WT (top) and AmbnΔL76-P86−/− mutant (bottom)
Visakan G, Bapat RA, Cai J, Suwandi ET, Joester D, Kegulian NC, Sarkisians E, Aghazadeh M, Webster S, Moradian-Oldak J. Ameloblastin amphipathic helix motif mediates ameloblast polarization and prismatic enamel formation. Int J Oral Sci. 2026 Aug 20;18(1):56. doi: 10.1038/s41368-026-00457-0. PMID: 42624830.
Congratulations to Rucha Bapat and Gayathri Visakan! In addition to being invited to present their research on ameloblastin and enamel formation, Rucha and Gayathri were also awarded Young Investigator Travel Awards at Enamel 11, an international conference held in France earlier this month.
Last Thursday, Dr. Janet Moradian-Oldak was inducted into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon (OKU) Dental Honor Society (Zeta Chapter) in recognition of her outstanding contributions and service to the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry.
OKU is a national honorary society focused on the field of dentistry, founded in 1914 at Northwestern University. Each year, only one faculty member is nominated for this distinction. We’re proud to celebrate Dr. Moradian-Oldak’s well-deserved honor!
(Dr. Janet Moradian-Oldak pictured here with Dean Yang Chai of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC)
Congratulations to Erika Bauza Nowotny for her big win! Erika won the USC Stevens Center for Innovation’s “Most Commercial Potential” award for her poster presentation at the 2025 Ostrow Research Day.
Congratulations to Gayathri Visakan for her winning poster presentation in the Postdoctoral Fellows category at the 2025 Ostrow Research Day!
Bauza Nowotny E, Jassar S, Phark J-H, Moradian-Oldak J. Treating White Spot Lesions and Non-Carious Cervical Lesions with Amelogenin Peptide-Based Hydrogel. Biomimetics. 2025; 10(2):120. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics10020120.
Congratulations to Dr. Janet Moradian-Oldak on her fourth competing renewal of “Matrix based mineral enamel-biomimetics,” an R01 grant she has been working on since 2001! With this grant, her lab has been able to study the structure and functionality of ameloblastin (Ambn) by looking at how it interacts with different targets, with the hope of gaining further understanding of enamel formation.
“Ambn is a matricellular protein, and its complex role in amelogenesis relies on a multitargeting property centered in the region of the sequence encoded by exon 5. Ambn interacts with ameloblast cells via the amphipathic helix (AH) domain and functions to anchor the mineralizing extracellular matrix to enamel-forming cells.”
Dr. Janet Oldak was honored last spring with the 2023 USC Mentoring Award for Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students, an honor bestowed upon outstanding faculty mentors by previous recipients. Please read more about this well-deserved honor here.
