01  /  Manifesto
Regeneration, not repair
The tooth’s own cells
Blood supply restored

Not a space to fill, but living tissue to bring back.

Root-canal cross-section with glowing crimson and amber microvasculature
Regenerative Endodontics · NUS Dentistry

Helping the tooth grow its living pulp back.

When a tooth loses its pulp, it loses its blood supply and its ability to sense and protect itself. Our work is to grow that living tissue back inside the root — restoring the tooth from within, with its own biology, rather than simply sealing it.

02  /  Premise

Why a tooth needs its pulp alive.

The living tissue inside a tooth does more than fill space — losing it changes everything.

The challenge Why healing is hard

Once a tooth’s pulp is lost, there is no easy way to bring it back. Today’s treatments rely on a blood clot to fill the canal — but a clot alone struggles to organize into healthy, well-fed tissue along the length of the root.

No blood supplyLittle structureLow oxygenHard to sustain
Our approach · 01

Guiding cells to rebuild dentin.

We guide cells into the specialized, dentin-building cells of healthy pulp, so they can line the canal wall and lay down new dentin — as they did when the tooth first formed.

Our approach · 02

Working with the tooth’s real shape.

Every root is different. We build soft scaffolds that fit the canal’s true form and keep the new tissue nourished along its full length — so healthy pulp can grow from the root tip all the way up.

03  /  Sectional Logic

Reading the canal from the outer wall to the root tip.

The new tissue is built to match the tooth’s real shape — the canal is where it grows, and the root tip is its only doorway in.

Concentric-dentin tooth cross-section with apical vasculature
01
The Tooth’s Real Shape

We build the new tissue to match the tooth’s own outer shape — not a generic tube.

02
A Protective Wall

The hard dentin wall holds the space and gives the new tissue its shape.

03
Where Growth Happens

The hollow space inside the tooth — the pulp chamber and canal — is where the scaffold, cells and blood flow all come together.

04
The One Doorway In

At the root tip, a tiny opening is the only way in — the single doorway for nutrients, oxygen and the body’s own blood vessels to reach the new tissue.

05
Blood Flow, End to End

Tiny channels we build carry blood flow all the way from the root tip to the top of the tooth, so no part of the new tissue is starved of oxygen.

28 d
From implantation to new dentin
7 d
First signs of dentin-building activity · Puramatrix
5
Genetic factors used to reset the cells
3
Cell types confirmed the reset worked
15–20 mm
Full canal length reached by new blood flow
2
Injectable materials tested successfully · Puramatrix & rhCollagen I
04  /  Materiality

Matter in conversation with life.

Every material we choose is chosen for how well it works with living cells, fluid and the tooth’s own signals.

The Dentin Wall
Holds everything in place, safely and comfortably
The Gel Filling
A soft, water-rich gel that feeds the growing tissue
A Soft Support Web
Fine fibers that give cells something to organize around
The Vessel Lining
A thin layer of cells that lines and connects new blood vessels
Open Channels
Tiny connected pores that let fluid and cells move freely
A Branching Network
Spreads blood flow and chemical signals evenly through the tissue
05  /  Reprogramming Protocol

From a banked cell to living dentin.

A stored cell, reset to an earlier state, carefully checked, then guided step by step into a dentin-building cell.

SourceCell bank

Start With Banked Cells

We start with cells taken from a baby tooth or a removed wisdom tooth — a source that would otherwise be discarded, and that grows well in the lab.

Day 0Electroporation

Reset the Cells

A brief pulse of genetic signals resets these cells to a more flexible, early state, so they can multiply almost without limit and later become almost any cell type the body needs.

QCALP · OCT4 · TRA-1-60

Check the Reset Worked

Before moving forward, we run several checks to confirm each batch of reset cells is genuinely flexible enough to become the cell types we need.

InduceDSPP · DMP1

Guide Toward Dentin-Building Cells

We then guide the cells to become dentin-building cells, which line up along the dentin wall the way they did when the tooth first formed.

SeedInjectable

Deliver Into the Canal

The cells are suspended in a soft, injectable gel and placed into the full length of the cleaned root canal, following its real shape.

Day 7→28Vascularized

Grow a Blood Supply

Over the following weeks, new blood vessels connect to the tooth’s own circulation at the root tip, and the tissue matures into new, living dentin.

06  /  Scaffold Systems

The material decides when tissue forms.

From an early rigid proof-of-concept to soft, injectable gels that take the shape of the canal.

PLLA

Rigid
Poly-L-lactic acid

An early, rigid version used to prove the concept — showing for the first time that dentin-building cells could form inside a lab-grown scaffold.

First signs of activity Rigid, early-stage

Puramatrix

Injectable
Self-assembling peptide hydrogel

A soft, injectable gel that takes the shape of the canal as soon as it’s placed. Cells show the first signs of dentin-building activity within about a week — the fastest material we’ve tested.

First signs of activity By day 7

rhCollagen I

Injectable
Recombinant human collagen type I

A material closely related to what the body already uses to build tissue. It’s injectable, and it supports both new blood vessels and cell growth well.

First signs of activity By day 14
07  /  How It Grows

New tissue, grown step by step.

Inside the cleaned root, scaffold, cells, signals and blood flow come together in sequence.

01
A protected space
The cleaned canal becomes a safe home for new tissue.
02
A soft scaffold
A gentle gel holds everything in place and open to flow.
03
Cells + signals
The tooth’s own cells arrive with the cues to grow.
04
Blood flow
New vessels form and feed the growing tissue.
05
Living pulp
Healthy, dentin-lining pulp — alive again.
A protected space the tooth’s own biology living pulp restored
 /  Canal Development Sequence reserved

Tissue forming through the canal.

A cinematic five-stage sequence of tissue formation along the full canal length.

Space reserved

A cinematic, scroll-driven five-stage sequence — prepared canal, injectable matrix, cells and matrix cues, vascular integration, dentin-forming interface — with a restrained material legend (matrix, cells, vascular ingrowth, dentin interface) and per-stage constraints and evidence status.

To build together — next
08  /  The Cells

Three kinds of cell, one living tissue.

Dentine-building, blood-vessel and nerve-support cells come together into a single, working pulp.

Dentine-building cells

These cells settle against the dentin wall and begin building new dentin.

DSPP · DMP1 · Nestin

Blood-vessel cells

New vessels form and link up with the body’s blood supply at the root tip.

CD31 · VEGF · vWF

Nerve-support cells

Guiding signals help feeling return to the restored pulp.

TUBB3 · NGF · S100
 /  Experimental Routes reserved

Two complementary experimental routes.

Tissue organization across the full canal, and a renewable odontoblast-like cell source — distinct models addressing complementary parts of the regenerative problem.

Space reserved

One integrated scientific figure with two custom illustrations — a full-length root with vascularized tissue and a dentin-forming interface, and a three-state cell-source sequence (dental pulp stem cells, iPSC colony, odontoblast-like differentiation in a dentin-disc model) — converging to a shared pulp tissue-engineering node. No publication cards; one programme link.

To build together — next
09  /  Characterization

Judged by the whole picture, not one test alone.

We look at how the cells reset, specialize, build mineral and connect to blood flow — all together, not one at a time.

Pluripotency
ALP · OCT4 · TRA-1-60

Confirms the reset worked — before moving forward, we check that each batch of cells is genuinely capable of becoming any cell type.

Teratoma Test
Subcutaneous in vivo

A standard lab test where the cells are allowed to grow into several different tissue types — proof that the reset was complete and functional.

Dentin-Building Cells
DSPP · DMP1 immunostain

Confirms that the seeded cells have taken on the identity of real dentin-building cells.

New Dentin
Histology · SEM

Confirms new dentin has actually formed along the canal wall, with the same fine tubular structure as natural dentin.

Blood Vessels
CD31 · host anastomosis

Confirms a network of small blood vessels has formed and linked up with the body’s own blood supply.

Cell Density
vs native pulp control

Confirms the new tissue is as densely populated with cells and blood vessels as natural, healthy pulp.

10  /  Kinetic Balance

The scaffold must fade as new tissue grows in.

Material breaking down
New blood vessels growing in
BEST TIMING WINDOW ROOT TIP TOP OF TOOTH RATE →

If the scaffold breaks down too slowly, it blocks new cells and vessels from moving in. If it breaks down too fast, the structure collapses before blood vessels arrive to support it. We look for the timing where a temporary scaffold hands off smoothly to tissue that can support and feed itself — calculated for each tooth’s own canal shape.

11  /  Roadmap

From the bench toward the chairside.

Established in vitro and subcutaneous models; orthotopic, injectable and clinical stages ahead.

Now

In vitro canal model

Full-length human premolar canals, marker onset by day 7–14.

Established
Now

Subcutaneous in vivo

Immunodeficient (CB-17 SCID) model; tubular dentin by day 28.

Established
Next

Orthotopic large-animal

Perfusion and innervation in a physiological jaw environment.

In progress
Horizon

Chairside injectable

A single-visit injectable construct matched to the individual canal.

Target
Horizon

Clinical translation

First-in-human vascularized pulp regeneration.

Target
12  /  Key Spatial Principles

Not a fill — a living thing.

We treat the canal like living tissue in the making — shaped by confinement, true anatomy, distance and flow.

A confined space keeps things stable
The tooth’s true shape guides the design
Distance from blood supply encourages new vessels to grow
Tiny channels spread blood flow evenly
The root tip supplies nutrients and cells
The whole system works like living tissue
A living environment that regenerates from within.
Living tissue · Restored from within
 /  Experimental Evidence reserved

The full-length root-canal model.

One editorial evidence panel: the experimental model, what it demonstrated, why it matters, and a quiet link to the paper.

Space reserved

An editorial evidence panel (no dashboard card) — a vertical amber accent, a serif heading, a concise description of the full-length human root-canal model, a why-it-matters note, and a small metadata link to the study. The full citation stays in Published Work.

To build together — next
13  /  Published Work

Where this began.

The peer-reviewed studies this work is built on.

2018
J Dent Res 97(1)
Functional Odontoblastic-Like Cells Derived from Human iPSCs

DPSCs reprogrammed via OCT4·SOX2·KLF4·LIN28·L-MYC; iPSC-seeded dentin/PLLA constructs formed odontoblast-like cells 28 d after subcutaneous implantation.

Xie H, Dubey N, Shim W, Ramachandra CJA, Min KS, Cao T, Rosa V. · J Dent Res 2018;97(1):77–83.

View Paper
2013
J Dent Res 92(11)
Dental Pulp Tissue Engineering in Full-Length Human Root Canals

SHED in Puramatrix or rhCollagen I injected into full-length premolar canals generated vascularized pulp-like tissue with tubular dentin.

Rosa V, Zhang Z, Grande RHM, Nör JE. · J Dent Res 2013;92(11):970–975.

View Paper