Prof. Ozlem Yilmaz

Prof. Ozlem Yilmaz is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical & Community Health Sciences at the College of Dental Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Previously she served as the Department Chair of Oral Health Sciences from 2021 to 2023 at MUSC. Prof. Yilmaz received her DDS from Istanbul University in Istanbul, Turkey, and her PhD in Oral Biology from the University of Washington, Seattle, where she also pursued post-doctoral work in the Department of Global Health and was a visiting fellow at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. She was a tenured faculty in Periodontology and Oral Biology and an inaugural resident member of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida before joining MUSC. Prof. Yilmaz’s lab focuses on oral opportunistic bacteria and host interactions, and is particularly interested in the molecular aspects of a major pathogen, Porphyromonas gingivalis, in the intra-epimucosal colonization in gingiva using advanced human primary cell culture systems and transgenic mice-models. Her lab is one of the leading teams in the US dedicated to uncovering the complex interplays between host and periodontal bacteria in the context of microbial symbiosis, as well as the pathophysiology of the oral cavity and other systemic locations.