AADOCR NSRG - Secretary Candidate
Reasons for Running:
As a DDS/PhD student, I understand the importance of research to help progress the dental field forward to ultimately better our patient care. In order to cultivate successful researchers and clinicians in our field, it is important to foster an environment where students’ interests, and ambitions are recognized and allowed to flourish. As a strong advocate in promoting research at the University of Minnesota, I feel confident in my ability to motivate students to be involved and excited about the research happening in their schools as well as the dental community as a whole. Moreover, as the NSRG’s Midwest regional representative, I experienced first-hand how important it is to ensure that each school has the resources and environment needed to nurture a strong research community to guarantee the success of their students.
By becoming a member of the NSRG board, I will be a strong activist for all students in the dental research field. I will encourage all graduate, dental and dual degree students to be actively involved in their university’s LSRGs and the NSRG and I will work hard with my other board members to ensure all student voices are heard.
Thank you for considering me as a representative for the NSRG board.
Research Conducted / Student Activities
Complete list of published work in my bibliography:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/kristina.astleford.1/bibliography/public/
- Investigating the role of lysine specific demethylase 1 in osteoclast differentiation
University of Minnesota, K. Mansky Lab (08/2018-Present)
• Determining the in vitro osteoclast phenotype and in vivo skeletal phenotype of mice that have LSD1 conditionally knocked out in the myeloid lineage.
o 1 review paper published (Astleford K et al., Int J Mol Sci. 2020)
• Investigating preosteoclast and osteoclast signaling pathways that are affected by the loss of LSD1 via RNA-seq data obtained from LSD1 conditional knockout mice.
• Characterizing a periodontitis model in LSD1 conditional knockout mice to determine if loss of LSD1 prevents periodontal disease related bone loss.
- Antimicrobial and enzyme-responsive multi-peptide surfaces for bone-anchored devices
University of Minnesota, Aparicio & K. Mansky Labs (2019-2020)
• Validated that MMP-9 secreting osteoclasts can cleave an MMP-9 cleavable peptide (MMP-CP) which is important for the release of a multi-functional pep-tide-based coating on titanium.
o 1 primary research co-authorship (Fischer NG et al., Material Sci Eng C 2021)
- SMAD1/5 signaling in osteoclasts regulates bone formation via coupling factors
University of Minnesota, K. Mansky Lab (2016-2018)
• Determined that SMAD1/5 signaling negatively regulates osteoclast-osteoblast coupling factors via treatment of mc3T3 cells with osteoclast conditioned media from wild type and SMAD1/5 conditional knockout mice.
o 1 primary research co-authorship (Tasca A et al., PLoS ONE 2019)
- Breast cancer cell-derived fibroblast growth factors enhance osteoclast activity and contribute to the formation of metastatic lesions
University of Minnesota, Schwertfeger & K. Mansky Labs (2015-2017)
• Demonstrated that treatment of osteoclasts with conditioned media from breast cancer tumor cells enhances osteoclast differentiation but treatment with an FGFR inhibitor reduces this effect.
o 1 primary research co-authorship (Aukes K et al., PLoS ONE 2017)
09/2021 – Present: AADOCR National Student Research Group
- Midwest Regional Representative
09/2021 – Present: Member of Minnesota’s Empowering Women in Science
- Speak to K-12 students in Minnesota about science and STEM career opportunities.
09/2018 – Present: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
- Society Member
- Member of the ASBMR Student Cohort Program
07/2018 – Present: University of Minnesota - Discover Dental School Program
- Dental Research Student Representative
- Discuss with pre-dental students about the research opportunities and programs within our university and dental school.
Awards
- 08/2020 – Present NIH/NIDCR Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Recipient (1F30DE030354-01)
- 2021 AADOCR NSRG Outstanding Regional Representative Award
- 2021 AADOCR BLOC Travel Grant Recipient (1R13DE030343-01)
- 2020 Recipient of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Young Investigator Award for Virtual Ph.D. Training
- 08/2018-08/2020 T90 Minnesota Craniofacial Research Training (MinnCResT) Predoctoral Fellowship Recipient
