A cornerstone for rare-disease expertise in oral health in Canada and beyond.
The CARE Network is a collaborative initiative between the UBC CODED research excellence cluster, the Dalhousie University Faculty of Dentistry, and the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine.
Our focus is the oral health needs of patients with rare diseases, alongside the educational needs of oral health professionals strengthening screening, diagnosis, and practice.
We work with health educators, physicians, geneticists, caregivers, and organizations dedicated to rare diseases. Participation and collaboration are welcome.
Screening, diagnosis, and treatment planning meet around a shared core of education.
Surface gaps in the knowledge of clinicians, graduate and undergraduate dentistry students, and allied oral health researchers.
Incorporate the lived experiences of patient partners regarding their oral health care.
Develop strategies to close these gaps, including actionable recommendations from experts and educators.
The themes guiding CARE's research, education, and collaboration.
Syndromic and non-syndromic rare conditions present varying manifestations in oral structures. Dentistry has a critical role in their diagnosis and management.
Advancing understanding of the oral manifestations of rare disorders, emphasizing interdisciplinary and translational research approaches.
Rare disorders pose unique challenges and opportunities for providers identifying, addressing, and treating them at the chairside.
Identifying gaps in knowledge and opportunities for dentistry to collaborate with medical clinicians to improve care delivery.
Patient and caregiver experiences are vital to a comprehensive understanding of the challenges of rare disorders in oral health care.
Defining the path forward through a comprehensive strategy for the sustainable development of the CARE Network.
Daniel Graf received his BSc in Biochemistry and PhD in Immunology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. For almost 20 years he has used genetic models to study craniofacial, oral, and dental development. He moved from the University of Zurich to the University of Alberta in 2014, where he held the Alberta Dental Association & College Endowed Chair in Oral Health Research from 2020–2023. In fall 2023 he joined the University of British Columbia to establish and direct CODED, a new Faculty of Dentistry research cluster dedicated to rare craniofacial, oral, and dental disorders. He is passionate about tooth, bone, and cartilage development, physiology, and regeneration, and is engaged with the rare-disease community through ClinGen, the KBG syndrome focus group, and the CAN-ACT consortium for inherited aortopathies. A dedicated mentor, he helped establish the Student Research Groups at the University of Alberta and UBC. In his spare time, he unpacks his violin as an active member of the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra.
Dr. Anjali Bhagirath is a clinician–scientist and Assistant Professor and Division Head of Periodontics at Dalhousie University, a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada. Her Microbial–Host Dynamics Lab (mhdlab.org) investigates how mucosal environments shape host–pathogen persistence, with emphasis on rare diseases and oral–systemic interfaces, mapping the epithelial–adaptive immune checkpoints that link microbial ecology to disease exacerbations. She holds a cross-appointment in Microbiology & Immunology at Dalhousie and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Mary MacDougall is a Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of British Columbia, where she served as the Faculty's first female, non-clinician Dean from 2017–2023. She earned her PhD in Craniofacial Biology at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Dentistry and her BA in Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. She has held appointments at USC, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she was founding director of the Global Center for Craniofacial, Oral and Dental Disorders (GC-CODED) and the NIH/NIDCR-supported DART training program. A past President of both the American and International Associations for Dental Research (AADR and IADR), she has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, with more than 10,000 citations of her work.
Heather Szabo-Rogers received her BSc in Cell Biology from the University of Alberta and her PhD in Oral Biology from the University of British Columbia. After ten years on faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, she relocated her laboratory in 2023 to the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research focuses on the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying human orofacial clefting and congenital craniofacial disorders identifying genetic variants in Saskatchewan patients and investigating their impact through animal models and cell-based approaches, with the broader goal of understanding how rare diseases alter the craniofacial skeleton. In her spare time, she enjoys quilting.
A workshop exploring CARE's core topics is planned for late November 2026 at UBC's Vancouver campus, with support from the NCOHR and the Loeys•Dietz Syndrome Foundation Canada.
Interested in collaborating, contributing your expertise, or sharing a patient perspective? We'd love to hear from you.