Roland E. Baron, DDS, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Oral Medicine Infection and Immunity
Office: REB 310
Telephone: 617-432-7320
Email: roland_baron@hsdm.harvard.edu

Dr. Roland Baron is an exceptional and accomplished scientist and leader. Trained as a dentist in Paris, he earned post graduate certificates in Oral Biology and Periodontology as well as a PhD in Odontology. He is internationally known for his groundbreaking advances in bone biology. His research is the basis for the development of novel therapies to prevent bone loss such as that in arthritis and osteoporosis.

Dr. Baron, who has over 250 publications, is the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Journal, Bone and Associate Editor of the Journal of Cellular Physiology. He has won numerous professional honors, and in 2005 was the recipient of the D. Harold Copp Award in Basic Research from the International Bone and Mineral Society. Dr. Baron is a member of the many Scientific Advisory Committees. Most recently, he served as President and Chief Scientific Officer at the Prostrakan Group and he has also held other significant leadership positions in pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Baron’s laboratory is focused on signal transduction and the ways in which it controls cell differentiation and function. For this purpose, they mostly study skeletal development and remodeling as a model system. In this context, the program of the laboratory is divided in three well-defined but highly interactive main research goals:

1. Understanding the role of the AP1 family of transcription factors, specifically Delta FosB in skeletal development and in particular in the determination of mesenchymal cell lineages between the osteoblast and adipocyte cell types.

2. Characterizing the role of Src tyrosine kinase and its substrate Cbl in the signaling from integrins and other receptors involved in cell adhesion and migration, the role of ubiquitination in these processes and the role of these processes in cell migration, using as a model system the migration and function of the bone resorbing cell, the osteoclast.

3. Characterizing the molecular mechanisms by which the G Protein-coupled calcitonin receptor regulates the cytoskeleton, adhesion and migration in osteoclasts, and its cross-talk with integrin signaling, Src, Cbl and the focal adhesion kinase Pyk2.

Dr. Baron’s approaches combine extensively in vitro and in vivo experiments, often involving genetically modified transgenic or knockout mice and their isolated cells, that integrate molecular, cellular and in vivo studies to determine both the molecular mechanisms of cell biology and pathology and the impact of these mechanisms and their alteration at the organ level in normal and disease conditions. His work is directly relevant to several medical issues such as osteoporosis, bone metastasis in cancer, cancer itself through his focus on several proto-oncogenes, and endocrine disorders.