Lin Zeng, PhD

Lin Zeng graduated from Nankai University, Tianjin, China with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Microbiology, and finished his PhD training in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at UF in 2004. He started his research career as a postdoc here at UF dental school by focusing on dental caries and the underlying molecular mechanisms required for bacterial interactions in dental microbiome. He has devoted his time to both basic research and education, training undergraduate, graduate and dental students, postdocs, and visiting scholars. Lin was recently hired into the tenure track as an Associate Professor at the Department of Oral Biology.

My research focuses on the metabolism of carbohydrates by oral bacteria, specifically how sugars affect bacterial behavior at the molecular level and contribute to oral health and diseases. Dental caries is the most prevalent infectious disease in humans, a condition caused by microbiome dysbiosis, or loss of balance in bacterial diversity, with overconsumption of sugar and presence of certain microbes being the most important risk factors. Facing an aging population in most developed nations, gum recession and prevalence of hyperglycemic conditions are rapidly becoming important contributing factors as well. The best defense against dental caries is a healthy microbiome that prevents the colonization of virulent species. Our research has identified important features in metabolism of multiple carbohydrates that separate pathogens from health-associated bacteria, and provided understanding in how these differences contribute to bacterial competitiveness and affect the virulence potential of dental plaque, and how we could apply these understandings to improve caries control.

One such example is our discovery that amino sugars can reprogram central metabolism in abundant oral streptococci to enhance pH homeostasis and biodiversity, and to boost the beneficial commensals during competition against the major caries pathogen, Streptococcus mutans. Another recent development in our research revealed the connection among fructose metabolism, reactive electrophile species such as methylglyoxal that is critical to the development and many complications of type 2 diabetes, and hydrogen peroxide, all of which can significantly affect microbial homeostasis in dental plaque. The ultimate goal of our program is to achieve the fundamental understandings necessary to create or improve upon therapeutics toward more effective control of caries or other oral diseases.