Delta Dental Endowed Professorship in Oral Health and Systemic Disease
School of Dentistry
Richard J. Lamont, Ph.D. is the Delta Dental Endowed Professor and director of the Research Group in Oral Health & Systemic Disease at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry. These researchers are involved in cross-disciplinary projects to dissect the molecular and cellular basis of the interactions between oral bacteria and their host, and to define the influence of oral bacteria on diseases in other parts of the body.
Lamont brings four major grants from the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research. His research focuses on the molecular dialogue among oral bacteria and the means by which these bacteria manipulate host cells – this work has led to new insights into how bacteria thrive in humans.
Lamont has authored more than 100 scientific papers and given scientific presentations nationally and internationally. He has written and edited several textbooks including Oral Microbiology and Immunology, the first textbook of its kind to focus primarily on the knowledge and understanding of the oral ecosystem and its unique role in human health and disease. The book details the ecology, virulence, molecular biology and immunogenicity of oral bacteria, viruses and fungi and examines their interface with the human host.
He is also the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Molecular Oral Microbiology and sits on the editorial board of Infection and Immunity.
Lamont earned his doctorate in bacteriology from the University of Aberdeen. He was a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Lamont was most recently a professor in oral biology at the University of Florida.