Why Research Matters: Therapeutic Oral Cancer Epigenetic Regulation with Dr. Manish Bais, Associate Professor of Translational Dental Medicine
In our new research series, “Why Research Matters,” we are speaking with GSDM faculty about what sparked their research interests, what they’re working on now, and how they hope their findings will lead to meaningful changes in oral healthcare treatment.
Oral cancer rates are increasing in most developed countries, but at the same time, oral cancer patients are becoming resistant to the dental field’s default cancer treatment, immunotherapy, according to Dr. Manish Bais, associate professor of translational dental medicine. In Bais’ recent research, he and a team of fellow researchers are looking into epigenetic regulation-based treatment for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), an emerging alternative to immunotherapy that targets and reverses poor gene expression patterns.
“Epigenetic regulation is not very well understood,” Bais said. “With this group of proteins, we don’t know much about the mechanisms. When we started this study, there were only a few publications. Now, everyone is interested.”
In the study, the team explored if restricting Lysine Specific Demethylase 1 (LSD1) protein expression that influences weakened immune response known to contribute to cancer progression, is beneficial.
“This protein, LSD1, we found that this is critical for driving from the pre-cancer to cancer stage,” Bais said. “If we inhibit this protein, maybe we can reverse or we can stop the progression to cancer.”
Bais and the team developed cancerous lesions in mice models and tested to see if they could reverse the precancerous lesions by inhibiting LSD1. The study showed that LSD1 is crucial for OSCC development and the methods of restricting LSD1 could become a potential therapeutic solution to control OSCC progression.
Bais said oral cancer screenings during routine dental visits can catch pre-cancerous lesions. There’s hope that epigenetic regulation-based treatment could eventually improve recovery rates. However, oral cancer often gets diagnosed way too late—when it’s already spread and gotten super aggressive. Bais emphasized how crucial it is to keep up with regular dental visits.
“Oral cancer has a five-year survival rate of less than 50 percent,” Bais said. “That’s the real challenge.”
Bais would not have predicted his career would focus largely on dental research. After graduating with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Nagpur Veterinary College (India) in 1998, he started working in a private veterinary practice. In this work, he realized there was a genuine necessity to develop new medications for osteoarthritis and cancer treatment for both animals and humans, leading him to want to go back to school and pursue research.
So after less than a year in practice, Bais embarked on a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (VMD) and PhD in biotechnology and veterinary medicine at Indian Veterinary Research Institute (India). He started his research focusing on biotechnology with an emphasis on vaccinations. He transitioned to studies on bone cartilage regeneration and cancer. Bais said he found head and neck cancer research fascinating, particularly due to its low survival rate.
Although he is no longer working in the veterinary industry, Bais said he views his career path to dental research as a natural journey, following his newfound discovered research interests
Bais joined Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in 2006 as a postdoctoral student, later joining a postdoctoral research lab at GSDM in 2010. He served as a research assistant professor of molecular & cell biology starting in 2013, launching his research lab** at that time. He is now an associate professor of translational dental medicine. He said his background in veterinary medicine and biotechnology gives him an outsider’s perspective on oral cancer research.
“I used my veterinary medicine background to generate specific animal models [for] collaborative studies [with] several labs. Then, I started my own projects working on different aspects. This combination of basic science and preclinical research gives a little bit of an advantage by doing things in a different way.”
The next step for his current study is to experiment with other animal models similar to humans, such as feline oral squamous cell carcinoma. Bais estimates it will take three to five years before this research reaches a human clinical trial.
His latest manuscript*** on LSD1 inhibition was accepted for publication in Cancer Research. Future research will focus on exploring the molecular mechanism behind LSD1 in OSCC and the effectiveness of LSD1 inhibition in a treatment setting.
* Bais published “Lysine-specific demethylase 1 controls key OSCC preneoplasia inducer STAT3 through CDK7 phosphorylation during oncogenic progression and immunosuppression” with Amit Kumar Chakraborty, GSDM postdoctoral associate, Rajnikant Dilip Raut, GSDM postdoctoral research fellow, Kisa Iqbal ENDO 25, GSDM clinical instructor of endodontics, Chumki Choudhury, GSDM visiting scholar, Thabet Alhousami ENDO 22, Sami Chogle, GSDM chair and associate professor of endodontics, Alexa S. Acosta, Lana Fagman, Kelly Deabold, Marilia Takada, Bikash Sahay, and Vikas Kumar.
**The 2025 Bais research group includes Amit Kumar Chakraborty, GSDM postdoctoral associate, Rajnikant Dilip Raut, PhD and postdoctoral fellow, Cheyleann Del Valle-Ponce De Leon CAMED 27 27, Haripriya Ramaswamy SDM 30, Madi Almadi ENDO 28, Chumki Choudhury, GSDM visiting scholar, and Saleh Alghufaili ENDO 27.
*** Bais also published “LSD1 Inhibition Induces MHC-I and Dendritic Cell Activation to Promote Antitumor Immunity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma” with Amit Kumar Chakraborty, GSDM postdoctoral associate, Lina Kroehling ENG 27 27 CDS 28, Rajnikant Dilip Raut, GSDM postdoctoral research fellow, Chumki Choudhury, GSDM visiting scholar, Maria Kukuruzinska, GSDM associate dean for research and professor of translational dental medicine, J Silvio Gutkind, Xaralabos Varelas, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine biochemistry & cell biology professor, Bikash Sahay, and Stefano Monti, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine computational biomedicine professor and Boston University School of Public Health biostatistics associate professor