Alessandro Villa

Dr. Alessandro Villa

Lecturer on Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity, Part-time
Alessandro Villa

Dr. Alessandro Villa is currently appointed a lecturer, part-time on oral medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He had previously been director of HSDM's advanced graduate oral medicine program and also associate surgeon in the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women's Hospital until February 2020. At that time, Dr. Villa left Boston for a move to UCSF, although he remains connected to our program as a research mentor and collaborator. Dr. Villa obtained his DDS degree from the University of Milano, and a PhD from the University of Sassari, Italy. He served as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, NIH where he studied the oral HPV prevalence in a large population and methods of early detection of oral cancer. He obtained his Master of Public Health from AT Still University, MO and his Certificate in Oral Medicine from Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Fields of Interest

Dr. Villa's research interests are focused primarily on the early diagnosis of oral cancer. In particular, Dr. Villa is working on a predictive model for oral cancer in patients affected by oral potentially malignant disorders. His research aims to identify molecular processes, pathways, and regions that may be targeted for the future pharmaceutical treatment of the oral potentially malignant disorders. Dr. Villa has contributed to the oral medicine literature with numerous journal articles and book chapters. He is a peer reviewer for several professional journals. His clinical interest includes treatment of oral mucosal diseases, salivary gland disorders and oral complications from cancer therapy. 

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