Student linked to ACCDiS gets award for the best undergraduate thesis

Pedro Torres Salazar, brand new surgeon dentist of the Faculty of Dentistry of the U. in Chile he earned the distinction of best undergraduate theses awarded by the society of cell biology of Chile and Foundation for cell biology.

With his work entitled "Influence of salivary protein 1 endothelial cell adhesion and migration hystatin", Dr. Pedro Torres Salazar, graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Chile was awarded this important award.

Dr. Pedro Torres noted also that "this award demonstrate the Academy dentistry is changing, that is not only seeks to train clinical, but prepare professionals who can ask questions, and are interested in answering them, So what, In addition, they can act flexibly when faced with research".

On the other hand, Dr. Vicente Torres, research associate ACCDiS, He celebrated the recognition of his student thesis, whereas its achievement “a very, but very pleasant news, not only for Pedro Torres, because he has broken a barrier where a dentist is space and leads in an area that has historically been restricted to hard scientists. He competed pair to pair with thesis of master of the most prestigious national laboratories. In addition, the findings of Dr. Torres, they have gone beyond the national border, and it has allowed us to open new collaborations with centres, as the University of Amsterdam”.

Thesis

In this research work, explained Dr. Torres, "we wonder if hystatin-1", a salivary protein, exclusive of humans and certain primates, could have an impact on the adhesion and migration of endothelial, thus acting as a factor pro-angiogenic (that favours the formation of blood vessels), taking into account that the current evidence indicates that, by means of promoting the migration of epithelial cells, impact on the process of re-epitelializacion of wounds (reconstitution of the epithelial barrier)”.

After a long exploratory journey that saw multiple experiments, "evaluating different aspects of the angiogenic process - migration", accession, proliferation, vascular morpho-genesis, among others-", It was possible to conclude that "the hystatin-1 is a new factor pro-angiogenic", which added to the current evidence, It allows project to this protein as an excellent co-adyuvante in the treatment of diseases where tissue repair is reduced", said Dr. Pedro Torres. Thus also, added the dentist, generated evidence "that human saliva can act as a pro-migratorio agent of endothelial cells, and that this phenomenon rests on Hystatin-1. This helps us to understand, in part, the enormous importance of the saliva into the wound at the oral level repair process".

In this context, Dr. Torres valued the technical and human capacities of the team with whom he worked, given that "along the way was easily manageable by all those who participated in this project, Since these, with your patience and ideas, They carried to fruition this thesis".

Text credits: Faculty of dentistry University of Chile - ACCDiS

Credit photograph: Faculty of dentistry University of Chile.