Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Director, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak was appointed as the seventh director of the NIDCR in September 2000. As Director, he provides leadership for a team of 450 scientists, administrators and support staff with an approximate annual budget of $371 million. Prior to joining NIH, he was the senior associate dean for research and professor of dentistry and biochemistry & biophysics in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester in New York. Dr. Tabak led a number of interdisciplinary research teams studying the molecular and genetic aspects of craniofacial-oral-dental conditions. He also served as director of several Rochester Institutional training grants, including the Medical Scientist Training Program, the Dentist Scientist Training Program and the Summer Program for Underrepresented Dental Students.

Dr. Tabak has published extensively on the structure, biosynthesis, and function of salivary mucins, the pathogenesis of salivary gland disease and dysfunction and the use of saliva as a diagnostic fluid. His current work focuses on the family of enzymes that initiate mucin-type O-glycosylation. He has been part of the NIH community since the late 1970s, when he received his first NIDCR grant. In the early 1980s, he was an NIDCR Visiting Scientist in the former Patient Care and Clinical Investigations Branch. He has also served as an ad hoc reviewer of the NIDCR intramural research program and as a member of the NIH oral biology and medicine study section.

The NIDCR director has also served in various official capacities in a number of professional organizations, including the International/American Association for Dental Research, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for Glycobiology. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work, including being named a fellow of the AAAS and his election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Tabak received his undergraduate degree from City College of the City University of New York, his D.D.S. from Columbia University, and both a Ph.D. and certificate of proficiency in endodontics from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

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