Mateusz Wietecha, PhD, DMD

Mateusz Wietecha, PhD, DMD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Biology at the UIC College of Dentistry. His research focuses on the cellular and molecular parallels between wound healing and chronic disease progression. Humans have a remarkable ability to heal after injury, involving coordinated actions of many cell populations and their products. Cancer encapsulates the entire healing process becoming dysregulated, and it has been described as a “wound that fails to heal.” Oral mucosa has greater regenerative potential than skin, but oral tumors are more aggressive than their more common counterparts in the skin. His lab investigate such parallels between healing and cancer formation using multi-omics and imaging.