Chih-Ko Yeh
Professor of Comprehensive Dentistry at UT Health San Antonio who studies how ageing changes saliva and the salivary glands, and how damaged glands might be repaired
Professor (tenured), Department of Comprehensive Dentistry, UT Health San Antonio · Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, South Texas Veterans Health Care System · postdoctoral visiting associate and staff fellow, National Institute of Dental Research · PhD in Oral Biology, University of Connecticut (1986) · BDS, National Taiwan University (1977)
Older people often have a dry mouth because their salivary glands shrink and scar. In the Atlas study ABD2026, Yeh's group, with first author Parveez Ahamed Abdul-Azees, looked at the submandibular salivary gland of the common marmoset, a small primate that ages much faster than humans. Older glands had fewer saliva-making cells, more ducts and scar-like connective tissue, more fat build-up and more dying and senescent cells. Marmosets given rapamycin, the drug that blocks the growth-control complex mTORC1, kept more of the gland structure and had less scarring. It is a primate tissue study, not a human trial.
Yeh studied dentistry at National Taiwan University (BDS, 1977) and earned a PhD in Oral Biology and a certificate in Oral Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine in 1986. He then trained as a postdoctoral visiting associate and staff fellow at the National Institute of Dental Research in the United States.
He is a tenured professor in the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry at UT Health San Antonio, with cross appointments in Cellular and Structural Biology. His research covers how ageing and age-related diseases affect saliva and salivary glands, salivary gland stem cells and regeneration, saliva-based diagnostics and anti-fungal denture materials. PubMed also lists him at the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Rapamycin Attenuates Age-Related Changes in Marmoset Submandibular Gland: A Non-Human Primate Model of Human Oral Aging. ABD2026 Senior author: led the marmoset study showing age-related damage in the salivary gland and partial protection with long-term rapamycin. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Chih-Ko Yeh.
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- Adam B. Salmon Biologist of aging at UT Health San Antonio whose work in this Atlas spans rapamycin in mice and in common marmosets. He is a co-author on the Interventions Testing Program reports from the San Antonio site and on the marmoset rapamycin studies on blood markers, epigenetic age and the salivary gland
- Parveez Ahamed Abdul-Azees Oral biology researcher at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry who works on dental caries, oral biofilms and salivary gland ageing, and first author of the marmoset study of rapamycin and the ageing salivary gland
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