Instructor/Clinical
Department of Dental Diagnostic Science

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio at San Antonio, Dental School

E-Mail: knightcb@uthscsa.edu

Office: 2.580U

Phone: (210) 567-3333

FAX: (210) 567-0863

Dr. Cara B. Gonzales is a VA Dental Research Fellow in the Department of Dental Diagnostic Science, at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), Dental School, San Antonio, Texas. She completed a dual degree, DDS/PhD program at the UTHSCSA in 2003. Her graduate training focused on a TGFβ psuedoreceptor called Nonmetastatic gene A (NMA)/Bone Morphogenetic Protein Inhibitor (BAMBI) and its role in head and neck development and ameloblastoma formation (tumors derived from ameloblasts of teeth). During her concurrent DDS, PhD training she authored six peer-reviewed publications and was funded by an NIH/NIDCR F30 Individual Research Grant. She was also awarded two American Association for Dental Research (AADR) Student Research Fellowships. Her work was presented at numerous national and international meetings and she was the recipient of several research awards.

From 2003-2006 she was a T32 funded post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Dental Diagnostic Science at UTHSCSA. During this period she developed a mouse model for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and evaluated the role of Osteonectin in OSCC metastatic spread. This work was recognized at the annual AADR meeting in Florida, in March, 2006 where she won second place in the Warner Lambert Hatton research competition and received a travel award to present her findings at the international meeting in Brisbane, Australia in June 2006. Additionally, during this training period, Dr. Gonzales authored a chapter on the biology and epidemiology of oral cancer which was published in January, 2008.

From 2005-2008, Dr. Gonzales served on the San Antonio chapter of the AADR committee and is currently the Past-President of this active UTHSCSA research group. During this period of time, she also served on the UTHSCSA dental school Research Committee and the Altered Curriculum Committee. She has lectured to pre-doctoral students in the dental histology and gross anatomy courses and taught pre-clinical physical evaluation and simulated patient exercises.

Dr. Gonzales is currently completing a VA Dental Research Fellowship focused on oral cancer pain and a residency program in Advanced Education in General Dentistry with an emphasis on management of head and neck cancer patients. She will be joining the Department of Dental Diagnostic Science in July, 2008 as an Assistant Professor and concentrating her efforts on studying novel mechanisms of oral cancer induced pain and development of pain management for this population of patients.