Dr. Ramsey studies the interactions between oral microbiota. That means looking at bacteria on our teeth. Studying bacteria helps us understand how oral diseases become diseases and what we can do to prevent them.

What's fascinating is that these oral bacterial populations work as different communities, so understanding them will teach us more about their community ecology. If you like learning about bacterial cultures and DNA then you will definitely enjoy working in Dr.Ramsey's lab.

There are on average 6 undergraduates working in the lab at a time. Some important skills and instruments used in this lab are aseptic technique, media making, culturing bacteria aerobically/anaerobically, genetics, PCR machines, spectrophotometers, & incubators.

The major lab interests are:

Interactions between healthy oral microbiota constituents in supragingival plaque.

Finding bacterial interactions of interest in both health and disease and identifying the mechanisms underlying these interactions.

Studying the relationship between systemic disease and the human oral microbiome.

If interested, best to contact through email: mramsey@uri.edu