Figure 4.

The vision for a globally representative Human Oral and Craniofacial Cell Atlas. To accomplish the goals of the OCBN, we will require the development of inter- and intrainstitute partnerships to connect oral health care teams (namely but not exclusively: oral pathology, oral surgeons and periodontists, endodontics, oral medicine, oral radiology, and general dentists) with medical care teams (namely but not exclusively: ear/nose/throat, dermatology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, allergists, endocrinologists, pediatricians, neurologists, pathologists, clinical genetics, oncologists, radiologists as well as internal and emergency medicine providers). This collaborative approach will allow us to lead the burgeoning field of integrated precision oral health through the application of innovative investigative approaches (single cell, spatially mapped genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics as well as other “omics” approaches such as metabolomics and microbiomics). Furthermore, defining oral and craniofacial tissue mucosal niches across the life span and building on those reference data will provide unparalleled opportunities to interrogate the mechanisms of common and rare oral and craniofacial diseases across the life span. We will be working collaboratively with other research centers, investigator networks, and related consortia to make data and samples available to the broader research community to address common and rare health concerns globally; to develop scalable representative disease and therapeutic models; and to further integrate, analyze, and discover actionable targets through artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies. In total, our network should have a positive impact on precision medicine for all patients. Credit: Heather McDonald, BioSerendipity, LLC.