Marcelo Freire, DDS, PhD, DMedSC, is an associate professor in the Genomic Medicine and Infectious Disease Department at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland. He is also an adjunct professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Among many accolades, Freire is the recipient of the Centennial Balint Orban Memorial Award from the American Academy of Periodontology. A diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology, he also previously served as a faculty member at Harvard and the Forsyth Institute. Freire’s research focuses on the role of the human micro biome modulating chronic inflammation and his current National Institute of Health-funded research programs focus on finding immune signals that are common to oral and systemic chronic inflammation in conditions such as COVID-19, type-2 diabetes, and others. Freire’s laboratory is shedding light in translational science from saliva diagnostics for chronic inflammation to novel therapeutics in tissue healing. He can be reached at: mfreire@jcvi.org.