The Institute of Dentistry at Queen Mary has a thriving PhD student community and we welcome applications for MPhil, PhD, MRD (MRES) postgraduate students and visiting research fellows to undertake research in in all fields where we can offer expert supervision.The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry is an international Leader in Oral and Dental sciences. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) – a measure of the quality of higher education in the UK – the Institute of Dentistry at Queen Mary was affirmed as the leading dental school for research in the UK.Our policy is that our dental research should always be in the main stream of biomedical research, contributing to it and at the same time benefiting from strong interdisciplinary links with our colleagues in the rest of the Medical School and the wider College. We provide a friendly, first-class, intellectually stimulating and focused environment for postgraduate study.Main research areasResearch in the Institute of Dentistry is organised within multidisciplinary research centres, which provide critical mass of expertise and a fulfilling academic environment.Major interests within these groups are listed below:Centre for Oral Immunobiology and Regenerative MedicineThis Centre combines our expertise in the soft tissue and bone research areas, including Oral Immunology and Microbiology Oral Medicine and Periodontology groups.Research areas:Microbial pathogenesis and virulenceMicrobial-host interactions and immune defencesNaturally occurring antibacterial peptides and other moleculesMucosal immune responsesClinical studies and genetic factors in oral ulcerationCell biology of bone formation and tissue regenerationRisk and prognostic factors in periodontitisOral epithelial ageing and role of telomerase in oral cancerEpithelial stem cells in cancerKeratinocyte biologyBiology of tumour invasion and role of integrinsClinical studies of treatments in oral cancerBehavioural factors and smoking cessation