Dr. Maria Kukuruzinska appointed GSDM Associate Dean for Research

Dr. Maria Kukuruzinska appointed GSDM Associate Dean for Research

(Boston) ­ Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter appointed Dr. Maria Kukuruzinska Associate Dean for Research, effective today, Monday, October 4.  As Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Kukuruzinska will report directly to the Dean and be a member of both the Dean¹s Committee and Executive Committee. In her new role, Dr.
Kukuruzinska will serve as Chair of the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) Research Committee and as the Director of the GSDM Office for Research.  She will work closely with counterparts at the other Schools and Colleges of the University to promote the research interests of GSDM and of the University.  Dr. Kukuruzinska will represent GSDM on the several research related committees of the Medical Campus and University, as well as represent GSDM externally at the local, national and international levels.

Kukuruzinska received a B.A. in Chemistry & Biology from Bryn Mawr College, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University where she also served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.  From 1984 to 1988 she was a Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kukuruzinska has held numerous positions at both the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) and the Boston University School of Medicine since 1988.  She has served as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor and currently serves as Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at GSDM and Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine.

Kukuruzinska has an extensive record of grants and awards.  Currently, her active grants include NIDCR, NIH funded Regulation of Salivary Gland Development by Adhesion Receptors and The Role of E-cadherin N-glycans in Oral Cancer.  In addition to her research activities, Kukuruzinska lectures regularly.  She also has an extensive body of published peer reviewed journal articles, reports, and edited books. Her seminal scientific contributions include elucidation of the interplay between protein N-glycosylation and E-cadherin-mediated adhesion, and most recently, Wnt signaling. Her publications have been singled out by Faculty 1000 and selected for editorial research highlights.

Kukuruzinska has been an active member of committees and working groups at GSDM and across the University.  At GSDM, she currently serves on the Applied Strategic Planning Committee, the Dean¹s Council on Ethics and Professionalism, the Core Accreditation Committee, the Appointments and Promotions Committee, and the Science Day Committee.  She is the Director of the Predoctoral Research Program and the Chairperson of the Predoctoral Research Committee.  At the School of Medicine, she serves on the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, the Committee on Faculty Affairs, the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Training Program and the Cancer Center.  In 2000, she was honored with the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Honor Dental Society Faculty Award.

Kukuruzinska has been a member, and served as chair, of numerous peer review committees and currently serves on the College of CSR Reviewers, at the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the United States-Israel Bi-national Science Foundation, and the Special Emphasis Panels at the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.  She is also a Grant Reviewer at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology at the University of Porto, a member of the Editorial Board for Cell Health and Cytoskeleton and a reviewer for numerous scientific publications.

She is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Salivary Research Group, the International Association for Dental Research, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Glycobiology.

In addition to membership in many professional organizations, she is currently co-chair of the Gordon Conference on Salivary Glands and Exocrine Biology 2013, and a founding member of both the Norwegian-United States Initiative on Sjogren¹s Syndrome (NUSSIS) and the Life Sciences Research Foundation Alumni Board.