Jørgen Slots is a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 periodontist and professor of dentistry

Dentistry

Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...

 and microbiology

Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...

 at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry

University of Southern California School of Dentistry

The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry was established in 1897 as simply the "University of Southern California School of Dentistry," and graduated its first class of 11 students in 1900. In 2010, the school was renamed after a $35 million dollar donation by a USC alumnus, and the school was...

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Biography

Slots graduated from the Royal Dental College of Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Denmark in 1969 and received his post-graduate certificate in periodontology in 1976. In 1977, he received a certificate in microbiology from the Forsyth Institute in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. To fulfill United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 licensing requirements, he redid his dental training at an ADA

American Dental Association

The American Dental Association is an American professional association established in 1859 which has more than 155,000 members. Based in Chicago, the ADA is the world's largest and oldest national dental association and promotes good oral health to the public while representing the dental...

-accredited dental school, graduating from University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine

University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine

The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine is one of twelve graduate schools at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

 in 1987, along with an MBA received in 1989 from the same institution.

Discovery of the role of A. actinomycetemcomitans in periodontitis

Using a selective medium he created

TSBV

TSBV is the acronym for tryptic soy-serum-bacitracin-vancomycin, a type of agar plate medium used in mictobiological testing to select for Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans...

, Slots discovered the role of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is an oral commensal found also in severe infections in the oral cavity, mainly the periodontium. A. actinomycetemcomitans, previously Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, is a gram negative facultative non-motile rod. It is also associated with non-oral...

in periodontitis in humans.

Career

From 1982-1986, Slots was chair of the department of oral microbiology at the University of Gothenburg. He served as chair of periodontology at the USC School of Dentistry from 1991 to 2001 and was the associate dean for research at the same institution from 1990 to 2000.

Since 1991, he has been the director of the Oral Microbiology Testing Laboratory at USC.

Slots is editor-in-chief of three leading international dental journals: The Journal of Periodontal Research, Periodontology 2000 and Oral Microbiology and Immunology.

He has published over 300 articles related to the field of periodontology, microbiology and implant dentistry

Dental implant

A dental implant is a "root" device, usually made of titanium, used in dentistry to support restorations that resemble a tooth or group of teeth to replace missing teeth....

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