Marlene Barros
Saliva as a diagnostic fluid - challenges and perspectives
- Full Professor, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- Dean, Faculty of Dental Medicine
- Director of Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health – CIIS
- Director of SalivaTec Laboratory
Nationality: Portugal
Scientific areas: Innovations in dentistry
5 of november, from 17h30 until 18h05
Auditorium C
Conference summary
The potential of saliva as a non-invasive diagnostic fluid is being explored by several research areas. However, in order to fully reach its potential, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive characterization of the intervening molecules and the mechanisms in which they participate, when they act in the oral cavity ecosystem. The emergence of omic technologies, and mainly of proteomics, generated a huge set of data that are under-explored. Quantitative information regarding proteins in a given context (for example, a particular disease) can be used by computational algorithms to generate information about Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs). PPIs can be further analyzed for functional significance and used to identify potential biomarkers, therapeutic targets, defense mechanisms and pathogenicity. The scientific evidence generated by the characterization of saliva allows us to foresee a huge potential and of interest for application in a variety of health solutions.