b'SCIENCE & INNOVATIONThe oral cavityshappening in the mucosa of the lungs, its probably also happening in the mucosa of the oral cavity. underappreciatedHe successfully applied to the Sunstar Innovation Grant programwhich is administered in collaboration with the AAPto fund a project to map all the cells that make up the human periodontium.I had a feeling that the role in COVID-19periodontal pocket likely contains a lot of unique cells that havent been described yet, he said, and that if we could find those cell types, they might be able to help us better The March 2021 peer-reviewed medicaltreat disease. journal Nature Medicine featured aAfter many months of gathering comprehensive data on groundbreaking report titled SARS- the cells, and just as Dr. Byrd and his team were about to start validating where the various cell types were located CoV-2 infection of the oral cavity andin the oral cavity, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. UNC had to saliva. The report listed 52 individualsshut down, and so did my project, said Dr. Byrd. and two consortia as its authors; the lastAha moment #2name on the list were the investigators mostDuring the first weeks of the pandemic, Dr. Byrd and his responsible for its production: Dr. Blake Warner and wife Jaime began taking daily walks. Not surprisingly, their conversations often touched on what he was going to do Dr. Kevin M. Byrd. with all the time he suddenly had on his hands. During one such conversation in late March, Jaime asked if the work We spoke with Dr. Byrd about the remarkable story behind thehe had been doing was relevant to this new disease. I making of this vital report and the key implications it has forimmediately realized that it was, said Dr. Byrd, and that I was very lucky to be married to such a smart woman.the dental profession. Dr. Byrd started emailing colleagues around the world. I Aha moment #1 told them about this extensive dataset of gingival cells Id collected, he said. I asked, Could this dataset be used One day in 2018while he was serving as a research instructorto determine if the available front doors the SARS-CoV-2 at the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry,virus uses to enter cells and cause infection are in the performing surgery in the schools clinic, and pursuing post- mouth and, if so, might that set us up for actual infection doctoral work in stem cell biology at UNCs School of Medicinein the mouth that were missing? One colleague whoDr. Byrd happened upon a journal article that was about toresponded almost immediately was Dr. Blake Warner, change his life. The article discussed the discovery of a uniqueAssistant Clinical Investigator and Chief of the Salivary cell type in the lungscalled an ionocytethat expresses theDisorders Unit at the NIHs National Institute of Dental and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)Craniofacial Research. Dr. Warner indicated that he had gene. All of a sudden I started thinking about disease in aa cell dataset for the glands that would complement Dr. whole new way, said Dr. Byrd. It dawned on me that if this isByrds cell dataset for the gingiva. AAP Periospectives| 34'