Rachael Sugars

Rachael Sugars

Senior Lecturer | Docent
Telephone: +46852488123
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels Allé 8, 14104 Huddinge
Postal address: OF Odontologi, OF Oral diagnostik och kirurgi, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • Associate Professor
    Docent and Lektor / Associate Professor in Oral Biomedicine,
    Avdelningschef / Head of Division for Oral Diagnostics and Surgery at the Department of Dental Medicine
    Vice Study Director for Doctoral Studies

    After completing a BSC (Hons) degree in Biomedical Sciences (1997), I undertook my PhD education at Cardiff Dental School (University of Cardiff) sponsored by the Medical Research Council (UK) (2002) . The title was ​"The influence of recombinant proteoglycans in the mineralisation process" of hard tissues and supervised by Professor Graham Embery and Professor Rachel Waddington. Subsequently, in 2002 I moved to the Karolinska Institutet to join the Centre for Oral Biology for my Post-doc period and continued as senior researcher. In 2009, the Centre for Oral Biology joined with the research unit at the Department of Dental Medicine. Since 2012, I have been a Lecturer at the Department of Dental Medicine, focused on the biomedical education of dental, dental hygienist and continuing professional education dentists. I have been heavily involved in the development of the biomedical dental education and the implementation of the new dental program study plan. Alongside my teaching and mentoring activities, I am also Principal Investigator (see below).

Research

  • Current research is focused on developing pathological diagnostics and understanding disease processes in the soft tissues of the oral cavity. We
    are concerned with the complications that result following hematopoietic cell transplantation in the form of Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD). Oral
    manifestations are one of the most common and debilitating complications, and the histopathology poorly understood, particularly associated with
    long-standing chronic (c)GVHD. Our ongoing studies are working to understand oral mucosal and salivary gland cGVHD pathogenesis, clinical and diagnostic criteria and the search for predictive biomarkers. The shortage of qualified pathologists and inter-assessor variation is a limitation to diagnostics but digital approaches are providing unique tools to increase capacity, precision and accuracy. Machine learning (ML), and in particular deep learning (DL) algorithms can be trained to perform complex prediction tasks across a multitude of application areas. Using our digital image database we aim to develop a targeted oral digital pathology (DP) platform that will benefit the assessment of cGVHD but other pre-malignant
    and malignant oral lesions. Thereby strengthening pathologist / clinician interactions by providing rapid accurate histological assessment for clinical decision-making.

    Research group:
    Rachael Sugars (PI)
    Karin Garming-Legert
    Maria Bankvall
    Victor Tollemar
    Helena Arvidsson (Doctoral Student)
    Sabrina Svedjevik White (incoming Doctoral Student)
    Nikolce Tudzarovski

Teaching

  • *Pedagogical profile:*
    Biomedical sciences with a focus on the oral cavity in cell and molecular biology, oral biochemistry, craniofacial development, oral histology and
    pathology and scientific theory and method.

    *Pedagogical expertise:*
    Theme Lead for Basic Sciences and Medicine in the Dental Program
    Theme Lead for Scientific Development and Thesis Projects in the Dental Program (Year's 1 and 2)
    Working Group for the new development of the Dental Program Study Plan (ALVAH) - implemented August 2019
    Member of the Program Committee for the Dental Program
    Member of the Examination Committee for the Dental Program
    Revision of the biomedical education within the Dental Program

    *Current teaching activities:*
    First-cycle education - Dental Program
    Course Leader for Oral Biomedicine 2 (2TL053 - 7.5hp)
    Course Leader for Scientific Theory and Method (2TL050 - 3hp)
    Supervision of exam thesis projects
    Additional teaching responsibilities associated with second- (Master's and
    Continuing and Advanced Education) and third-cycle (Doctoral) education.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Clinical and diagnostic personalized management of patients with oral complications post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
    Steering Group KI/Region Stockholm for odontological research (SOF)
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
  • Clinical and artificial intelligence-prediction models for oral mucosal lesion diagnostics
    ALF Medicine
    1 October 2020 - 31 December 2023
  • Developing Histopathology Models for Oral Lesion Diagnostics Using Artificial Intelligence
    Steering Group KI/Region Stockholm för odontological research (SOF)
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Oral Graft-Versus-Host Disease: Clinical and Pathological Staging, and Identification of Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers
    Steering Group KI/Region Stockholm för odontological research (SOF)
    1 January 2016 - 31 December 2018

Employments

  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2020-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2011

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