Research/Areas of Interest
Dr. Alqaderi's research focuses on applying Artificial Intelligence across different aspects of research, including understanding the role of oral biofluids in diagnosing systemic diseases, with particular emphasis on saliva research. She directs the Dental AI Lab at Tufts University, which focuses on image analysis, Large Language Models, and machine learning. Through her leadership of the AI lab, she is stimulating AI agentic applications in dentistry.
She has been closely associated with national and international institutes, collaborating on multiple research projects, including the Kuwait Healthy Life Study and a COVID-19 study. During her involvement in the Kuwait Healthy Life Study as Co-Principal Investigator, she identified salivary biomarkers that can predict the risk of diabetes in children. She led several published papers from this study, one of which demonstrated that salivary C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and insulin correlated with blood CRP and insulin levels and predicted hyperglycemia in adolescents.
She was the Principal Investigator in a COVID-19 study, where she collaborated with institutions in Kuwait and the U.S., such as the J. Craig Venter Institute, to investigate the predictive value of the salivary microbiome for COVID-19 status. She demonstrated in her research that the salivary microbiome was predictive of COVID-19 status and severity. Her findings also indicated that the oral immune response plays unique roles during the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection when compared to systemic responses.
Education
- Doctor of Medical Sciences, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, USA, 2016
- Certificate in Dental Public Health, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, United States, 2015
- Certificate in Health Economics, University of Washington, USA, 2020
- Certificate in Data Science and AI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States, 2023
Biography
Dr. Alqaderi earned her Doctor of Medical Sciences (DMSc) degree from Harvard School of Dental Medicine and holds two certificates in Applied Artificial Intelligence from MIT, as well as a certificate in Health Economics from the University of Washington.
Dr. Alqaderi is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health, and previously served as faculty and Interim Program Director for the Dental Public Health Residency at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. She is also a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Dr. Alqaderi has received several prestigious honors, including the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Talented Women in Science and Harvard University's Lois Cohen Prize for Excellence in Global Health Research. In 2023, she delivered a TED Talk in Doha, Qatar, presenting her groundbreaking research on saliva and its connection to systemic diseases. With over 30 publications to her credit, Dr. Alqaderi currently leads innovative projects focused on integrating artificial intelligence into healthcare delivery.