Rate My Professor Dawn Coates

Research Professor Dawn Coates serves at the Sir John Walsh Research Institute, Faculty of Dentistry, Health Sciences Division, University of Otago. She holds a BSc and PhD from the University of Otago. Following her PhD, she completed post-doctoral training at Cambridge University and worked at AgResearch Invermay before returning to the University of Otago, where she has been employed for nineteen years. In December 2025, she was promoted to Research Professor. Coates is internationally recognized for her contributions to bone regeneration, angiogenesis, and tissue engineering.

Her research explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in tissue growth and remodeling pertinent to dental health and disease, with a focus on periodontal health and disease, angiogenesis, endoplasmic reticulum stress, multipotent progenitor cells, and osteogenesis. She has also conducted research in dental education and workforce analysis. Currently, she supervises five PhD projects and one Doctor of Clinical Dentistry project, having mentored 30 PhD students throughout her career. For her outstanding mentorship, she received the 2026 Women in Science Award for Distinguished Female Mentor. Key publications include 'A vast stem-progenitor cell pool, richly vascular system, and hybrid ossification drive the daily centimeter-scale elongation of bony antlers' (iMeta, 2025, Ba et al.), 'Channel-pillars scaffold for bone regeneration: Structure design, manufacturing, and physicochemical properties' (Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 2025, Li et al.), 'Chitosan-based nanoencapsulation of mānuka oil for periodontal treatment' (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025, Chen et al.), and conference presentations such as 'Bioengineering for dental regeneration' at the Pan-Pacific Leading Dental Schools Symposium (2025). Her work has been cited over 3,400 times.