Dr Sonia Nath

Dr Nath is a postdoctoral researcher at the Adelaide Dental School at the University of Adelaide, working in the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health and Indigenous Oral Health Unit. She completed her Bachelor of Dental Surgery in 2008 and her Master of Dental Surgery (Periodontology) in 2013. In 2023, she completed her PhD in oral microbiome research at the Adelaide Dental School after receiving the Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship.
Dr Nath is a scientist with a track record in health technologies and is leading innovative research in the emerging field of oral microbiome and microbial gene technology, a specialist area within oral microbiology. Dr Nath’s PhD research was located in this field. She is continuing work on Oral Microbiome Transplantation (OMT) (transferring bacteria from a healthy donor to a recipient having oral disease) and using this technology for treating and preventing dental caries and periodontal disease and using bioinformatics to create a “super donor assessment tool” for selection of healthy donors. She plans to start clinical trials using OMT 2025 and use this technology to improve the oral health of the Indigenous and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
Dr Nath is committed to understanding the lifestyle and environmental factors that could influence the oral microbiome. She is committed to improving oral health for the underprivileged population. Dr Nath has 10 years of experience in fieldwork and data collection. She has 5 years of experience engaging with Indigenous communities through culturally sensitive research practices. She co-led a project providing culturally safe dental care to over 400 Indigenous participants, ensuring that all clinical examinations and data collection were conducted respectfully in regional and remote South Australia.
Dr Nath has published 42 peer-reviewed articles with 690 citations, an h-index of 15, and an i10- index of 22 (as of 2025, Google Scholar). As an early career researcher, she has received more than $55 K in research funding as Principal Investigator (Paul Kwok Lee Funding, 2023, 2024) to continue her research on the impacts of orthodontics profile and self-perception among the Aboriginal population.
Dr Nath is recognised as an emerging leader in dental public health and oral microbiome research nationally and internationally. She has delivered keynote presentations at prestigious forums such as the Dental Hygienist Association of Australia Symposium (2023) and the International Association of Dental Research Conference (2024). Additionally, Dr Nath won the most prestigious research award, the Hatton Award (2024) by the International Association of Dental Research (IADR), placing her among the best dental researchers for 2024. She was awarded the IADR Colgate Competition Award (2023) and the Best PhD Student Research Award at the Adelaide Dental School Research Day (2023).