University of Houston · PharmacologyHu Lab
Ming Hu · Houston, Texas
Research Focus
Dr. Ming Hu's lab at the University of Houston focuses on understanding how buprenorphine, a medication for opioid use disorder, affects dental health. They study why high levels of buprenorphine appear in oral fluids and how this contributes to dental caries. The goal is to find ways to reduce the drug's concentration in the mouth without affecting its overall effectiveness, improving the treatment experience for patients.
buprenorphineopioid use disorderoral healthdental cariessaliva stimulation
Research Aims
5AIM 01Elucidate the mechanisms of buprenorphine's high oral fluid exposure.
AIM 02Develop pharmacological approaches to reduce buprenorphine concentrations in oral cavity.
AIM 03Establish a mouse model to study the effects of buprenorphine on dental caries.
AIM 04Evaluate the impact of saliva stimulants on buprenorphine levels in oral fluids.
AIM 05Investigate the virulence of Streptococcus mutans related to buprenorphine exposure.
Skills the Lab Values
LC-MS for bioanalysisrodent modelsPCRcell culturemass spectrometrydrug formulation developmentdental health assessmentsubcutaneous injectionsdata collection and analysis
Output against the department
Publications508top 10% of dept.47th of 462
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations15ktop 26% of dept.120th of 462
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.