Alexandre R. Vieira is Director of Clinical Research and Director of Student Research for the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Vieira received his DDS from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and subsequently gained an MS in Pediatric Dentistry and a PhD in Genetics at the UFRJ. He is currently a professor in the Department of Oral Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary professorial appointments in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Vieira has combined his background in pediatric dentistry and genetics to develop a research program that aims to provide a better understanding of common dental traits of complex etiology. He has created the Dental Registry and DNA Repository (DRDR), the first project in the world to keep DNA samples linked to a comprehensive dataset of dental clinical information. Dr. Vieira has received numerous awards and honors, including, on three occasions, the IADR/AADR William J. Gies Award for best clinical research paper published in the Journal of Dental Research. To date he has authored more than 300 refereed journal articles as well as two books; he has also co-edited two books. He is founder and editor of the journal Dentistry 3000.