Change through advanced scholarship
Curious about how Faculty of Dentistry PhD graduates support patients? These two remarkable grads combine hard work and passion to improve lives.
LIZBETH AYOUB 2T3 PhD
What if you could help the one in five people in Canada who suffer from chronic pain? Lizbeth Ayoub is trying to do her part. The recent PhD graduate from the Faculty of Dentistry focused her thesis on the role of the hippocampus in pain — a brain region not previously thought to be directly involved in the pain experience.
“Our research is important because it lays the groundwork for future studies on the hippocampus as a possible therapeutic target in the prevention and treatment of pain,” says Ayoub. For her innovative research, she earned the 2023 CPIN Distinguished Doctoral Award in Neuroscience and the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral Research Award, among other honours.
Ayoub is fascinated by how people experience pain differently, and how individual brain regions communicate during the process. She completed her BSc in biology at the University of Ottawa and was firmly set on U of T for her PhD. “The Faculty of Dentistry offers one of the strongest programs in pain research with world-renowned faculty members.”
One of her PhD supervisors, Massieh Moayedi, associate professor at the Faculty, Canada Research Chair in Pain NeuroImaging and co-director of the Centre for Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research, confirms that a dental faculty is an ideal place to study pain.
“The number one reason patients see a dentist is because of pain in the mouth,” he says. “Understanding the various potential sources of pain, and having effective ways to treat it, will only improve the patient experience and treatment outcomes.”
Ayoub is excited about her research as part of a post-doctoral fellowship in neuroimaging research at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital at Harvard Medical School. (And playing more classical guitar in her limited downtime.) She plans to pursue an academic career but hopes to return to Canada one day and contribute as a neuroscientist.
She’s thankful for the PhD supervision of Moayedi and Mary Pat McAndrews of the Krembil Brain Institute, as well as the collaborative, supportive nature of the Faculty overall. “I appreciate the expertise and care of the U of T faculty of dentistry and staff,” she says. “I also value the sense of community it fosters for graduate students.”
JEFF CHADWICK 1T0, 1T6 OR MSc, 2T3 OMFS PhD
Jeff Chadwick is a very, very busy oral and maxillofacial surgeon and radiologist, clinician-scientist and new dad to baby daughter, Maeve. This recent Faculty PhD graduate is also very dedicated to the field of head and neck oncology. This involves surgical management and facial reconstruction for patients suffering from cancers of the head and neck, as well as researching mechanisms that regulate cancer progression.
“The aim is to improve both diagnostic and surgical techniques to improve outcomes for patients,” Chadwick explains. He adds that due to the nature and location of some tumours, chemotherapy and radiation may be required along with surgery. In others, tumours may be inoperable, truly underscoring the importance of advancing cancer immunology research. Every year, about 7,900 people in Canada are diagnosed with head and neck cancer and 2,100 die from it. Better understanding, diagnosis and treatment of the disease will boost patient survival and quality of life.
Chadwick completed his DDS back in 2010, and then completed the combined Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology MSc program in 2016.
Taking on another seven years to pursue his Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency combined with a PhD might seem daunting to some, but Chadwick couldn’t resist the opportunity to combine his expertise in radiology and surgery and pursue immunology research. The first three years of the program were dedicated exclusively to research, with the final four years reserved for surgical training and thesis defense. As he says, with zero understatement, “It was a challenging endeavour requiring effective time management, prioritization of research activity and resident responsibilities, and setting realistic expectations.”
He's grateful for the unwavering support and mentorship he received from dedicated Faculty of Dentistry members Ernest Lam, Michael Glogauer, Marco Magalhaes, Marco Caminiti and Karl Cuddy, who all played pivotal roles during his undergrad and graduate years.
Today, Chadwick is completing a two-year fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic and Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. He hopes to return to Canada to work as a clinician-scientist who provides surgical care, produces innovative and translational cancer research, and supervises undergraduate and graduate students.
“I want to cultivate a training environment that inspires lifelong learning and perpetual advancement in academic and surgical proficiency,” he says. “I want to mirror the impactful educational atmosphere that I encountered at the University of Toronto.”