Translational Systems Medicine and Oral Disease

Dr. Sonis is senior academic at Harvard, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a world-renowned expert in epithelial injury associated with cancer therapy. His development of predictive animal models has enabled the investigation of the biological basis of cancer regimen-related epithelial injury and has catalyzed the development of potential therapies. Dr. Sonis’ interest in the genomic basis for toxicity risk and its pathology has led to innovative genomics-based analytical approaches to clinically actionable outcomes to personalize disease therapy. He has published extensively on the clinical, biological, and health economic aspects of cancer and complications associated with its treatment. Steve holds several patents and is the author of more than 275 original publications, reviews, and chapters and is completing his eleventh book. He obtained degrees from Tufts and Harvard and completed his post-doctoral education (tumor immunology) at Oxford University where he was a Knox Fellow.

Dr. Alessandro Villa is an Associate Surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He also holds an appointment as Instructor in Oral medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine where he serves as the Program Director for the Oral Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Villa studied dental medicine at the University of Milano, and obtained a PhD from the University of Sassari, Italy. He obtained his Master of Public Health from AT Still University, MO. He completed a surgical residency in oral medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard School of Dental Medicine and a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Villa is board certified in Oral Medicine. His clinical interests include the treatment of oral mucosal diseases, salivary gland disorders and oral complications from cancer therapy. Dr. Villa’s research interests are focused primarily on potentially malignant disorders of the oral cavity and oral toxicities from cancer treatment. Dr. Villa has published widely on topics in oral medicine and is the author of over 40 research papers, reviews and chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of both the World Journal of Stomatology and the American Journal of Oral Medicine.